Bittersweet Symphony
by Angelsaurus
Summary: Her relationship with him had always alternated between dependency and antagonism, but when football season is over, Tsuyumine Meg faces an unexpected challenge that will force her to decide, once and for all, what Habashira Rui really means to her.
1. Tsuyumine Meg

Free Talk- Rather than continue any of my poor neglected Bleach stories, I have decided to start a new one in my shiny new fandom, Eyeshield 21. As much as I love Hiruma/Mamori and would love to write about them, for some reason I felt inspired instead to write about Rui and Meg from Zokugaku. I think they have a lot of potential for storylines and there definitely is not enough fanfiction about them. So, this is the first chapter (and hopefully there will be more) of my story. I hope there are other people who like these two and enjoy this story. Please tell me what you think. Oh, and I have chosen to use the name Meg as opposed to Megu because it really just sounds much better. I hope that's okay.

**Bittersweet Symphony**  
By Miss Angel Maxwell

* * *

Chapter 1: Tsuyumine Meg

* * *

She was pacing, her slippered feet raking through the permanent layer of old school papers and clothes she wasn't sure were dirty or clean that blanketed her bedroom floor. When her left foot snagged under something hard she nearly tripped and she cursed softly through her teeth. "Dammit!"

Tsuyumine Meg bent down to pick up the offending object, her splintered bamboo sword, with one hand. Then she looked up at the Hello Kitty clock on her wall. Only one minute had passed since she last checked.

_Why the Hell does time slow down whenever you're waiting for something important? Oh right, because the universe is a bitch._

The near fall had caught her off guard and now she was too anxious to go back to her pacing. Her eyes followed the clock's second hand as it made a full circuit. One more minute to go.

Warm, sweaty fingers twisted around the hilt of her sword.

Now that the Chameleon's football season (and her time as their manager) was over, there was nobody that she _needed_ to intimidate. That wouldn't stop her from carrying it with her wherever she went, of course, like a badge of honor. Reaching for that smooth, worn handle had always made her feel protected, in her element. It made her feel strong.

Today it had somehow lost all of its cathartic powers.

The littlest hand finally completed its sluggish journey around the clock and, after sucking in a large uncomfortable breath, Meg lifted the object in her other hand (the one not holding a sword) and turned it over. The plus sign was a shockingly bold shade of pink.

"Fuck," she squeaked, though the sound was strangled as she'd momentarily forgot how to push that big breath back out. She felt her knees beginning to buckle beneath her and sat down on her bed, eyes never leaving that little pink symbol.

_Plus means pregnant. But… it could be a mistake. These stupid pieces of junk are probably wrong all the time._

She let go of her sword and lunged for the empty box on her bedside table. Heart pounding, she sifted through every word written on that damn box until she found what she was looking for. '99.9 accurate!'

"Fuuuuuck!" she growled, much louder this time, loud enough, apparently, for her mother downstairs to hear.

"Meg? What's all that noise? Are you getting ready for school?"

"Down in a minute!" she called back, not letting one hint into her voice that anything was out of the ordinary.

_Alright, gotta stay cool. I've lied to my mother too many times to count. I'll just act the way I always do and she won't suspect a thing. I'll take care of this… problem… without her or anyone else finding out._

It was unlikely that the woman would dare venture into the wasteland of her bedroom, but just to be safe, Meg tore up the test box into unidentifiably small shreds and buried them at the bottom of her trash bin. Then she wrapped the tester itself in tissues and crammed it into the zippered pouch of tampons that she hadn't needed for far too long, and tucked the pouch into her flat leather school bag.

There was still one last task to complete before she left for school. She stooped to the floor and from under her bed retrieved the thick local phonebook. It only took less than a minute for her to find the listings for women's clinics, and just a second more to narrow in on the one closest to Zokugaku. It would be easiest to go straight from school and just get it over with.

When she picked up her phone. For some reason her fingers seemed disabled, incapable of typing in the number.

_Errr! I just need to let the whole mess sink into my skull. That's all. I'll write down the number and call tomorrow, or the next day. Won't make any difference._

She slung her bag over her shoulder (the number on a folded scrap of paper in an inside pocket), grabbed her frayed sword, and bounded down the stairs. The smell of fried eggs stuck in her throat as soon as she entered the kitchen and she gagged. Unusual, as she normally loved the odor of things cooking.

"What, no breakfast again this morning?" her mother sneered from behind her ladies' magazine, though her eyes never even glanced at her daughter.

"Trying to lose weight," Meg breezily lied as she sprinted out the front door.

He was already waiting for her outside, his long, extraordinary arms crossed over his chest as his bike purred impatiently between his legs. "What took you so long, woman?" he grunted.

"None of your damn business!" she growled back.

Rui's flinch was so subtle that only she, who had known him since he was a little boy, would notice. "Jeez, bite my fuckin' head off why don' cha?" he muttered under his breath.

She sighed and put on the helmet that he'd set for her, as always, on the back of his bike. Then she stowed her baggage and climbed on behind him, wrapping her arms tightly around his stomach. "Let's just go already."

And they were off.

Ah! This is how she wanted to live, weaving through the streets of Tokyo on a motorcycle, wind whipping her bleached hair behind her like exhaust flames. Of course, she preferred to be the one driving. But the bitch seat had its advantages too.

She pressed her locked hands against his hard stomach, felt the ridges of each individual muscle through his shirt. Not bad. Even though his high school career was finished, he would do everything he could to play football in college. This body wasn't going soft any time soon.

There was also the view. She could spend a lot more time gazing at the passing city landscape when she didn't have to pay any attention to the road. Gambling dens and dark alleys, the shadier locales that dominated the area around Zokugaku, whirred past.

A cold knot formed in her stomach when she passed the women's clinic, the one whose number she had written down. She wouldn't be an unusual patient there. In fact, that clinic had a local nickname: Zokugaku birth control. Besides having a reputation as violent, no nonsense thugs, Zogugaku girls were known for their proclivity to get themselves in a 'delicate situation.'

Rarely, the girl would choose to keep the kid and would drop out of high school in a very mild scandal. But more often than not they did the sensible thing, because you couldn't ride a bike or mug someone with a brat strapped to your back. Soon Meg would be one of those girls. She would miss a day of school, maybe two, and not one person would ask whether she was sick.

The scent of pomade from Rui's hair wafted over her face and brought her mind back into focus. They were pulling through the school's graffiti-covered gates now, clusters of apathetic, chain-smoking teenagers shifting to clear a path for the magnificent bike.

Rui's was the only motorcycle that had its own reserved parking spot, an alcove outside the thunder dome. A half-dozen of his cronies were already waiting there to protect his bike once he got off. Upon dismounting he immediately flicked open his butterfly knife and hissed an order at the guards.

"None of you little shits touch it either! Any one of you messes with my bike, I will fucking disembowel you!"

"I think 'disembowel' might be too big a word for these guys," Meg softly clucked as she pulled off her helmet and swung her blonde mane around. When she stepped down onto solid ground, her insides lurched and all the blood in her head seemed to drain into her feet. She staggered, on the verge of falling down, but a long arm caught her by the shoulder and steadied her.

"You all right, Meg?" he asked.

"Just motion sick from your horrible driving," she huffed, pushing his arm off of her. She hated pity. Pity was for the weak. She didn't hate that he had used her real name. Even though she never told him, she secretly loved those off-guard moments when he would forget to call her 'woman.'

"Well, I'm going to have a smoke before class," he said as he began to stalk away. "You coming?"

She followed him for a few meters then stopped. "Eh, not today. In fact, I think I'm probably just gonna quit altogether."

"Huh?" he asked, one eyebrow raised in bemusement. "Since when are you a health guru? Do you really think you're gonna get cancer at age seventeen?"

Mustering as much pride and bravado as she could, Meg answered. "I'm not scared of cancer. Weak people get cancer. No, I just figure it's a waste of money. All the cash I spend on cigs could be used to buy new parts for the bike. Anyways, I'll catch you later."

She turned around and with a goodbye wave over her head, started walking towards the main school building. A few steps before she reached the door, a large hand landed on top of her head and she paused a moment while Rui moved in front of her and held the door open.

"I think you may be on to something about the cigarettes," he said. "Besides, I want to be in top condition when I start college. Might as well break the habit now. C'mon, let's go, woman." Then he gave her a shove through the doorway.

An odd feeling, something akin to an enormous gorilla fist, squeezed Meg's chest. Only now did she realize that it had been there since she first saw that plus sign- no, since the first morning she felt 'funny.' Up until now it had just been too faint to feel. It's what wouldn't let her fingers dial the clinic and what stopped her from having a cigarette.

She was never going to call that number she'd written down because she wasn't going to go through with the abortion. It wasn't any moral objection that was stopping her, and it certainly wasn't because she liked children (quite frankly she hated them). It was her stubborn inability to get rid of anything that Habashira Rui ever gave her.

She looked down as she walked at the old wooden sword in her hand.

_Fuck! I guess this means I'm going to be a mother._

To be continued…


	2. Mothers

Free Talk- I feel a bit bad for Rui because he doesn't show up much in this chapter. He will next time, though, and his role will continue to grow. Of course, Meg is the star of this story. Girls always wind up being the stars when I write fanfiction. I really love preg fic so that might be part of it. In any case, I hope people like what I write even though I write it because it's what _I_ like. And that includes this new chapter. Please tell me what you think. Thanks!

**Bittersweet Symphony**  
By Miss Angel Maxwell

* * *

Chapter 2: Mothers

* * *

Twelve years ago…

"_Oh Meg, did you even look in a mirror? Your hair is a rat's nest! It looks awful!"_

_These were the words that greeted the five-year old the moment her little feet stepped down from the last stair. Her mother, it appeared, had anticipated the situation and was waiting with a boar bristle hairbrush in hand._

_Meg didn't say a word, just stood there, scowling severely, as her mother roughly tugged the brush through her tangle of black hair. Something about the hard line of Mom's mouth and the angle of her eyebrows warned that this was not a time for complaining. _

"_Your aunt and your cousins will get here very soon and you have to look presentable. If only you weren't such a tomboy…" They were very typical mom words, but her voice wasn't right. Too serious, strict even. She wasn't smiling and shaking her head lightly, like other moms might as they chided a small child._

_Meg looked down at her own small toes wiggling anxiously inside white socks. "Daddy's dead, isn't he?" she asked quietly._

_The torturing of her scalp stopped and she looked back up at her mother's face. It was unchanged, an icy mask._

"_How did you know?"_

"_We didn't go to see him in the hospital yesterday," Meg said, "or the day before. It's been a lot of days. And we're getting dressed up and relatives are coming."_

_Mom closed her eyes. "It happened two days ago. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. Should have known you were smart enough to figure it out on your own."_

"_Oh," was the only response Meg could come up with. For some reason, she couldn't feel sad. All she felt at that moment was a vague sense of closure at hearing her mother say what she already knew. Maybe sadness would come later. _

"_Mom, are you sad?" She had to ask._

_Mrs. Tsuyumine was still very young and pretty, but when she answered her daughter her voice and her face seemed to have aged. "I'm… tired," she said. "And I'm worried. Your father left me with a lot to deal with."_

"_How come he died?" Meg asked. "You said that people get better from his kind of sickness, that he was going to be fine."_

"_Well, I was wrong," Mom answered. Her voice had an edge of bitterness that bordered on anger. "A lot of people do get better, but your father didn't. He was weak and he let the cancer kill him."_

_Meg's eyebrows creased together in the middle. "Dad… was weak?"_

"_Yes," said her mother. "He was a weak man. But you take after me, Meg. The two of us are tough and we have no need for weaklings, right?"_

_Meg tightened her jaw and set her eyes in the same expression as her mom. "Right," she said, nodding._

* * *

She had never been more thankful to have her own bathroom than she was that morning, wretchedly clinging to the porcelain bowl as if it were a life preserver and she were drowning. The combination of morning sickness and nicotine withdrawal had created a perfect storm in her stomach that sent her running to the toilet as soon as she staggered out of bed.

"What the hell? I didn't even puke this much after downing an entire bottle of shochuu," she groaned. "At least it's over for now… I think."

Just to be safe, she remained on the floor for another minute or two before getting up and thoroughly cleaning her mouth.

_I wonder how long this will go on for… I guess I need to do some research._

She winced internally at the thought of going into a bookstore and buying a pregnancy book. All those paperbacks with photos on their dust jackets of women lovingly caressing their swollen bellies disgusted her. But, of course, she was going to swell too.

_But I sure as hell won't stroke my stomach like it contains the fuckin' Hope Diamond._

Once she was back in her bedroom and the door was shut, Meg shed her pajamas in a heap on the floor and stood in front of her full-length mirror, in nothing but her underwear, carefully scrutinizing her body. It looked the same as always, perhaps even a bit slimmer from the skipped meals and barfing.

She counted in her head. The day she got knocked up was a certainty and today was February fifth, which put her at six weeks. There was still plenty of time to figure out how the hell she would pull this off.

Today she would get the awful first step over with.

Rummaging through the piles on her floor, she found a fresh-smelling pair of jeans and a mostly unwrinkled black turtleneck and tugged them on. Then she pulled her hair back into a ponytail (just in case the urge to vomit returned) and headed downstairs.

Her mother wasn't in the kitchen but Meg could hear the sound of a cooking show from the living room and could smell nail polish. Ordinarily, this would be the perfect situation to just slip out without having to answer questions about where she was going while her mom pretended that she cared. Today she felt an irritating compulsion to stop and talk.

"Hey mom," she said casually from the entrance to the living room.

"Hey Meg honey," Mom said without turning around. She was sitting in front of the television deeply engrossed in painting her toenails, her red-dyed hair rolled up in pink curlers.

"Mom, you're thirty-five, right?"

Her mother gave a haughty little sniff. "According to the family registry, yes. But you don't really think I look that old, right?"

"Er… I guess not," Meg answered awkwardly. "Anyways, I was just thinking about how young you must have been when you got married and had me. I mean, you must've married right out of high school."

Immediately, Mom was on her feet and facing her daughter. It had been a long time, years, since Meg had seen such a stern expression on this woman's face.

"Honey, please don't tell me you're thinking of getting married." There was worry in her voice that didn't show on her face.

Meg's eyes rolled as she protested. "Ew, Mom, of course not!"

Fingers with their bright red nails reached out and held her by her arms as sharp brown eyes searched her features.

"Promise me, Meg. Promise me you're not going to run off and get married, especially to that Habashira punk. You're going to graduate high school and go to college if you can. Don't throw your life away like I did."

A sharp twinge of annoyance jabbed under Meg's ribcage. "If getting married means throwing your life away then why the hell did you do it?"

The question seemed to hit her mother like a well-aimed missile as her expression went from fierce to mournful. Her voice when she spoke was soft and regretful. "Because, Meg, I didn't have a choice. You were already on your way."

This was brand new information, and shocking enough to render the teenager momentarily speechless. "You mean," she finally spoke, "the only reason you got married was because you were pregnant with me?"

Mom sighed and shook her head. "I hate having to admit it, but I just wasn't as smart as you are when I was that age. I was an idiot. Ah, but at least I know the child that resulted from my idiocy won't make the same mistakes. So you'd better not come home to my house with a marriage certificate. Promise me!"

"I'm not getting married!" Meg reemphasized, pushing away her mother's arms. "I'm gonna go out now for awhile, but… um… thanks for talking to me. I'm glad I know how you feel."

Stooping by the door to put on her boots, Meg prayed her only parent hadn't detected the poison injected in that last sentence.

_Don't worry, Mom. I won't be bringing home a marriage certificate any time soon. Just a baby. _

She shuddered and immediately decided that she would avoid telling Mom that her supposedly smart daughter was knocked up for as long as she possibly could. That conversation was going to require meticulous planning.

Along with her jacket, she added a hat, scarf, and dark sunglasses to her ensemble, to ward off the biting winter wind, but also to keep her identity somewhat concealed. She wasn't too keen on anybody recognizing her on her way to or from today's destination. Of course, her ride would give her away immediately, so today she would have to hoof it. She didn't even bring her sword.

She took mostly back roads just to be doubly safe. It would be a fairly long walk no matter what path she took. But she could handle it. The exercise would do her good.

Forty minutes later, panting and sweating under her winter clothes, she arrived at the OB/GYN office. She cursed under her breath even though she knew that the trek was well worth it. There was no way she could go to that clinic near school, too risky. The receptionist was a recent graduate from Zokugaku and still had a viciously wide gossip network.

This place was small and discreet, and Meg liked the idea of seeing a doctor who wouldn't be shocked and scandalized when she said she wasn't there for an abortion. She'd even lied about her age, saying she was twenty when she made the appointment to minimize awkward questions. It wouldn't be that bad.

Once inside the waiting room, however, her optimism was replaced with stomach-churning anxiety. The other three women in chairs all looked like young housewives, all wore wedding rings, and all were petting their beach ball sized bellies in a disgustingly sweet way.

It didn't matter how she was dressed, Meg was just a yankii off the street in this room full of mommies.

When a nurse poked her head into the room and called said, "Ms. Tsuyumine," Meg felt as if every eye was watching her. But when she looked around, those moms were fully absorbed in their baby magazines. "The doctor is ready to see you now," the nurse continued. So Meg stood up and followed her through the door.

She was led through a narrow hallway and into a small room with pink-painted walls and an exam table covered in sterile white paper. It crinkled when she sat down on it.

"Before the doctor comes in, I'd like to draw some blood," said the nurse.

Meg couldn't look. Beating guys three times her size bloody with a wooden sword? No problem. Dragging the boys on the football team behind her on a speeding motorcycle? Loved it. But for some reason she didn't like needles.

_Be tough. Be tough. Be tough._ She repeated it in her head like a mantra, until the nurse said "all done," and left to take the vial of red liquid to the lab.

Now came the waiting. Time to look around the room.

There was a white machine with a square monitor. An ultrasound machine, naturally. Mounted on the wall across from her was a bulletin board absolutely covered in photos of babies: smiling babies, crying babies, babies waving chubby little fists in the air. They must have been sent by former patients, the happy end results of their pregnancies.

Meg's heart began to beat faster, louder. She shifted uncomfortably and the paper crackled beneath her. These sounds were joined by a third, the voice that existed only in her own brain that spoke up every so often to talk her out of doing particularly stupid things.

_"You don't belong in this place and you know it," it said. "You hate babies, and this one is going to ruin your life. Are you really so stupid that you can't see that? Or are you just ignoring it?"_

Though the voice always sounded like her own, right now it reminded her strangely of her mother. Was she starting to think more like that woman?

_"You know, it's not too late, Meg. You can stop by the _other_ clinic before you go home and have this taken care of. You won't have to tell anyone, not Mom or Rui. It will be like it never happened."_

The thing that finally shut the damn voice up, for the moment at least, was the little squeak of door hinges as the doctor entered the room. A young-looking woman (under 30 Meg guessed), petite with short brown hair and glasses, she was about as non-threatening as medical professionals came.

"Hello, Ms. Tsuyumine," she said, looking up from the clipboard in her hands. "I'm Dr. Minagawa. It's nice to meet you. So, how are you feeling today?"

By now Meg's pulse was so strong she could feel it thrumming in her earlobes, but she made every effort to act as serene as she imagined the other patients here did. "I'm feeling okay, I guess. I was a little sick on my stomach this morning, but it's better now."

Minagawa chuckled. "That's absolutely normal. Your blood test confirms that you are indeed pregnant. Now, can you remember the first day of your last period? If you do we can calculate the date of conception."

"December twenty-fifth," Meg answered. She could feel her face growing warmer.

"Your last period started on Christmas then?"

"No," she corrected, feeling her blush spread like a rash. "That's the date of conception. You don't have to do any calculations. I know I got pregnant the night of December twenty-fifth."

_Right after the Devil Bats won the Christmas Bowl._

"Gotcha," the doctor chirped, not a trace of doubt in her voice.

Perhaps, Meg wondered, it was the embarrassment she knew must be showing on her face that made the doc trust her. For a few minutes she had been back in that empty locker room with Rui. The memory alone was enough to make her whole body feel hot. It could never be as if it never happened. It did happen.

"Why don't we go ahead and take a look at how things are going?" said the doctor. "Just scoot down and lie back, pull up your shirt a bit and open the front of your jeans." The room went dark and the ultrasound machine hummed to life. "This might tickle a bit."

Meg stared up at the dark ceiling, taking deep breaths to try and stay calm as the doc applied some warm gel and pressed the scanning device to her exposed stomach. It tickled more than a bit.

"Alright, take a look on the screen," said Dr. Minagawa. It had been transformed into an abstract painting in black and grey, on which she was pointing out features. "Everything looks as it should at six weeks. Implantation looks good. There you can see the amniotic fluid. And that right there is your baby."

It was just a white spot nestled inside a black oval.

"Err… Are you sure?" Meg asked skeptically.

"Well there's not much to see at this stage. But if you look very closely you might be able to see the heartbeat."

Squinting and craning her neck towards the screen, Meg scrutinized the little dot she couldn't imagine would ever look like a baby. A tiny black spot, barely even visible, blinked rapidly in the middle of it.

Her own heart leapt into her throat and her coarser nature exploded to the surface.

"Holy shit! It's got a heartbeat already! Holy shit!"

The doctor seemed surprisingly unfazed by the reaction. "Pretty neat, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Meg breathed, much calmer. She was enrapt by her little white dot now, unable to look away, and the warning voice in her head (though not silenced) lost all of its power over her. A new voice was dominant now.

_I don't want to be like my mother, who throws people away so easily because they aren't tough enough or smart enough or not good enough in some other way. I want something unconditional. I want… my baby._

That afternoon, Meg walked out of the doctor's office with a bottle of vitamins and the first photo of her little Spot tucked into her pockets. A blanket of grey clouds had rolled out over the sky and an icy drizzle was starting to fall, but for some reason it didn't bother her. The walk home didn't seem too unbearable either.

There was an odd energy in the air. The map of her life was being redrawn.

After about two blocks, the smooth growl of a motorcycle swelled behind her. A truly beautiful sound.

"Hey woman, what are you doing in this neighborhood?" he yelled as he slowed to a stop next to her.

"I could ask the same thing of you," she replied, trying to seem cool and aloof. When she looked at him, though, a smile forced it's way onto her face. He was leaning lazily over the handlebars and wearing a boyish smirk, a white lollipop stick protruding between his teeth. It was a strangely adorable image. "What's with the candy, Ru?"

He plucked the pop out of his mouth and lolled his abnormally long tongue at her. Both were bright apple green. "Hey, this is all I can do to keep myself from having a cigarette," he explained. "You got a problem with that?"

"Yeah I have a problem with that." She snatched the lollipop from his hand and licked it coyly. "You didn't bring enough for me."

"Hey!"

"Chill, I'll give it back in a minute." Oh how she loved watching him overreact.

Rui frowned and drummed his fingers eagerly as Meg slowly swirled the green lolli between her lips. "You never did tell me what you're doing here," he whined.

"Just taking a long walk," she replied. "You?"

"Out for a ride. It's the second most exhilarating thing in the world, you know."

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? I suppose playing football is the first then?"

A devious grin spread on his face as he reached out a long arm to steal back his candy. "What makes you think that?" He stopped and tucked the lollipop into his cheek. "So, uh, do you need a ride?"

"Always," she replied.

"I don't have a helmet though," he said, "so you'll have to just hold on really tight."

"I don't mind."

She straddled the bike behind him and tied her body to his with her arms, as tight as she could possibly hold him. The back of his neck smelled so wonderful she never wanted to let go. Her mother might disown her when it came out that she was pregnant, but she would live. If Rui rejected her…

_I__'ve made the decision to keep our baby, Ru. Please don't throw us away when you find out._

To be continued…


	3. Gifts

Free Talk- This is chapter 3. I don't have much to add except that I had a lot of fun writing the flashback in this chapter. I hope it is fun to read, too. Please tell me what you think.

**Bittersweet Symphony**  
By Miss Angel Maxwell

* * *

Chapter 3: Gifts

* * *

Nine years ago…

"_Apartment number forty-two. This is it, Meg. Our new home."_

"_What happened to the two?" the girl asked, pointing up to the faded silhouette that the missing digit left behind. She crinkled her nose. "This place is a little… weird."_

_Mom sighed loudly. "Please, Meg, let's try to make the best of this. You know I'm not any happier about having to move than you are. Besides, you haven't even seen inside."_

_If the outside of the apartment building was any indication, Meg had a pretty good idea of what the inside would look like: small, cave-like, and ancient, probably carpeted in dust. Once the door was opened, her suspicions were confirmed. _

"_Augh! Look at this shoebox!" Mom whined. "This place won't even hold all my shoes! It looks even smaller than it did when I signed the contract!"_

If you didn't spend all the money Dad left us on junk like shoes we wouldn't have had to move in the first place_, Meg thought to herself. _

_Of course, she wouldn't dare voice her opinion. Mom was all she had, her caregiver and only friend, and they had to stay unified. Besides, it really wasn't a seven-year old child's place to criticize her mother's lifestyle._

Their two pairs of feet swirled dust into the air causing Meg to cough noisily. "Mom?" she asked in a scratchy voice. "Can I go across the street to that park we saw? Maybe there are other kids around."

"_I guess," her mother sighed, still preoccupied by assessing the tiny apartment. "I've got to stay here and wait for the movers. Just stay out of trouble."_

"_Of course," Meg chirped. She knew that 'just stay out of trouble' translated to 'do whatever you want as long as it doesn't make me look like a bad parent._

_The park was small, but actually looked a bit nicer than the buildings it was adjacent to. There was a slide and swings and a sandbox, and at least a dozen large trees just right for climbing. The one thing that was missing was other kids. The swings were still, the sandbox empty. Ah, but there was something out of place. Lying on the ground on its side was a child-sized red bicycle that had to have an owner._

"_Hey, whose bike is this?" Meg asked loudly. No answer, but she wasn't giving up. She walked stealthily towards a cluster of trees and started looking around._

"_Just jump, stupid! It's not that far! Are you scared of the drop or scared I'm gonna beat you up?"_

_It was a kid's voice! Meg weaved between the trees to where the sound had come from and found a boy looking up at the treetops and yelling. He didn't seem to notice her._

"_Stop being such a chicken! C'mon, Rui, be a man!"_

"_Who are you yelling at?" Meg asked._

_The boy turned around and looked at her. He was an older kid, tall and stocky, with a wild mane of black hair and a twig in the corner of his mouth. He seemed a bit stunned by her sudden appearance and just stared at her for a moment before answering with a big smile. "My idiot little brother got himself stuck up a tree."_

_Now she was curious. "How the heck did that happen?"_

"_The little twit broke my bike so I was chasing him around with a huge stick," explained the boy. "You know, to whack him with. And he just, _zoom!_ runs right up this tree to escape. Like a cat. But now he can't get down."_

"_I can come down whenever I want!" an angry voice yelled from somewhere above. "I just know you're gonna hit me when I do, so I'm staying where I am… Even though I never broke your stupid bike!"_

"_I told you I won't hit you, dummy!"_

"_Liar!"_

_Meg searched the high branches but couldn't see the little brother._

"_Anyway," the older one continued, "I'm pretty sure that he really just doesn't know how to get down and is scared he'll fall if he tries."_

"_Am not! And who are you talking to? Is there a girl down there?" His voice was so contemptuous._

_Big brother was grinning gleefully now. "That's right, a girl… a really cute girl… is here with me, listening to what a big baby you are."_

_Recovering from the mild shock of being called 'cute,' she tried to think of anything she might be able to do for the boy in the tree. "Hey," she said to the older boy but intentionally loud enough for the younger to hear her. "If I fix your bike there won't be any reason for you to mad anymore and your brother will have nothing to be afraid of, right?"_

"_Really?" big brother asked. "You think you can fix a broken chain?"_

"_Yep," she declared proudly. "Just bring it over. Oh, and try to find me a big heavy rock and a thin flat rock."_

_A chance to show off a little was welcome. There was nothing Meg loved more than to fix things. Even without her box of tools, if the big kid was able to find the right rocks, she could fix his bike._

"_Perfect!" she said, examining what he brought for her. Then she sat on the ground and began to hammer and wrench with her improvised tools. The whole repair took less than ten minutes._

_The boy was clearly impressed. "Holy cow! You really fixed it!" He yelled up the tree. "Hey Rui! This girl fixed my bike! Come down and see!"_

"_Now I know you're lying for sure! A girl can't fix a bike!"_

_That was all the motivation Meg needed. She hurled the large rock in her hand (the hammer rock) up into the canopy at the unseen boy. A _THUD!_ and an "OW!" were immediately followed by a chorus of rustling leaves and snapping twigs, culminating in a dramatic _THWAK!

_Sprawled on the ground, chin in the dirt, was the mysterious little brother. Skinny arms, at least ten centimeters too long for his shirt sleeves, lay wilted at his sides and there was an understandably dazed expression on his face. _

_His brother, meanwhile, was doubled over laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes. "That was brilliant! You are awesome… girl!"_

"_Tsuyumine Meg," she informed. She stooped low and offered the little guy a hand, but he just made a disgusted face and stuck out a long, pink tongue at her._

_Her cringe was involuntary. "Ew!"_

_By now the older boy had calmed down enough to introduce himself. "I'm Habashira Tokage and he's Rui. Nice to meet you, Meg."_

_Rui was on his feet now, frowning as he plucked leaves from his stringy black hair. He stopped and stared at her intensely. His green eyes moved from her face to her feet and back again. Finally he turned to his brother and shouted angrily, "I thought you said she was cute!"_

* * *

"Aw, crap," Meg grumbled to herself as she climbed off the back of Rui's bike. A few meters away, a first year girl was handing a carton of cigarettes to a second year boy. It could only mean one thing.

"You really hate Valentine's Day, don't you?" Rui asked.

"It's so fucking stupid! You'd think the people at this school wouldn't be such saps." She noticed the tiniest trace of amusement on Rui's face and attacked mercilessly. "What is so damn funny? Are you gonna defend this shitty excuse for a holiday?"

He recoiled and made a nasty face. "Jeez, woman! Don't take it out on me! And it's not like the girls give chocolates like at other schools."

Loath as she was to admit it, February Fourteenth at Zokugaku wasn't nearly as vile as it was at most Japanese high schools. Where at other schools the central ritual was shy, lovesick girls giving homemade chocolate to the boys they secretly adored, at Zokugaku it was trash-talking yankii girls giving cigarettes to whatever thug they were affiliated with that month. And it wasn't a symbol of affection, but of loyalty.

There was a lot of tobacco being exchanged in the hallways that morning. Each couple Meg passed increased her irritation and she continued to vent to Rui. "Who even started this tradition? Was it like this when Tokage was here?"

She turned to look at him. He wasn't even paying attention to her. Two first-year girls, pseudo-tough wannabes, had sidled up next to Rui and were talking to him with slippery voices.

"Hey, Habashira," one of them, a twig-thin girl with caked-on black mascara, greeted. "We heard that you've given up cigs as part of your football training so some of us freshmen got you some chocolate instead."

"Please accept these as a sign of all of our admiration of you," the other girl, tall and large-breasted, added. "Good luck with college entrance exams. We'll come to all your games when you're with the Frilled Lizards."

Meg watched, revolted, as Rui accepted the stack of at least five boxes of chocolate with long, open arms. When he'd thanked the underclassmen and sent them on their way, he smirked at her, clearly proud of his haul. She responded with a severe frown.

"Oh, don't make that face," he told her. "It's not like any of it is homemade."

Her lips pulled back and she growled through her teeth. "What the fuck is wrong with those skinny little bitches? Giving you those when I'm standing right here!"

Rui was silent for a moment and then began shaking with laughter. "What does it matter that you're here? Everyone in the whole damn school knows we aren't dating. Come on! Besides, if things worked the other way around you'd be carrying gifts from every male in Zokugaku right now, and you know it. You're just jealous."

"Yeah, that's it," she sneered. "I'm just jealous that I didn't get a bunch of cheap, nasty chocolate from moronic fanboys." Her chest tightened. She knew that wasn't the comment that upset her.

_He's right, though. We aren't dating. What happened on Christmas was just…_

"You wanna piece?" He had pried open one of the boxes and held it under her nose.

This guy knew her weaknesses way too well. Her bad feelings about this holiday were pushed to the back of her brain while she chose which elegantly shaped morsel to take. "Mmm… caramel…" she commented around a mouthful of chocolate. Which should I try next?"

"Eh… you might want to go easy on the candy," Rui said awkwardly, pulling the box away. "I wasn't gonna say anything, but I think you may have added a couple of kilos since New Years."

Oops.

The look of horror on his face, like a gazelle that had just spotted the lioness about to pounce, left no doubt that he knew how bad he'd fucked up. That knowledge wouldn't help him, though. It took only a split second for Meg to whip out her wooden sword and, with one swift upward stroke, send his Valentine's chocolate flying in every direction.

A few of the students who had gathered around them in the hallway stooped down to pick up a couple loose pieces of candy, but nobody was the least bit perturbed. As Zokugaku fights went, this one was very tame, and only interesting at all because it involved the two most famous students in the school and a hail of free chocolate.

"Alright, I'm ditching today," Meg said coldly. Rui just stood there, speechless, empty hands still held out in front of him as she brushed arrogantly past and out the door.

She managed to maintain her icy, queen-like composure until she was outside the front gate and all alone. Only now did she notice that her heart was pounding like a bass drum and let herself collapse against the brick wall that surrounded the school. Slowly, she sank to the ground.

"Stupid Rui," she grumbled. "Stupid, stupid, fucking moron…"

"Yeah, that sounds like a pretty accurate description," he replied. Without making a sound he had followed her out. "Mind if I sit down with you?"

She refused to make eye contact. "Like I give a damn where you sit," she snorted.

He sighed loudly and sat down next to her. "You have every right to be pissed at me, but you know I didn't mean to say something like that. I wasn't thinking."

"Clearly."

"Meg…" His voice was quiet and pleading now. "You know you're my best friend. Since we were little kids we've always been together. I feel so comfortable around you, like I can tell you anything. I guess sometimes I just… I forget that you're a girl."

"Oh," she said stiffly. "I see."

His head landed gently against her shoulder. "Please don't hate me, Meg," he said softly. "You're more important to me than anyone else. I couldn't stand for you to hate me."

All of the anger in her body turned to liquid and drained away. "I could never hate you, Rui. Never ever." She was silent for a moment then continued in a whisper. "So are we ever going to talk about what happened after the Christmas Bowl?"

"What's there to talk about?" he sighed. He shifted to make himself more comfortable leaning against her and his hair on her neck make her shiver.

"Well… It changes things between us, doesn't it?"

Rui straightened up and turned so that he could look at her face. "What are you talking about? It's been almost two months and everything has been just like it always was with you and me. Why are you bringing it up now?"

"It's just that I… I'm…" The words seemed to clog her throat.

_Fuck! Why can't I just spit it out? I'm pregnant! You knocked me up in the Tokyo Dome locker room! Errr…. I just can't say it!_

"What? What's wrong?"

He was looking at her with worried eyes. Did he suspect what she was trying to tell him? Or just afraid of anything that might alter their relationship, which had been virtually unchanged for nine years?

She closed her eyes. "It's nothing… I guess I just wanted to make sure that your opinion of me… that your feelings about me were still… good." She opened her eyes and raised one brow. "Except for calling me fat and occasionally forgetting my gender of course."

"If I promise to be less of a dick, can we stay friends like we are now?"

Why did he have to be so damn cute at such an inconvenient time? There was no way she could deliver life-altering news when he was smiling at her like that.

"It's a deal," she sighed.

She would let things stay the way they were for just a little longer.

To be continued…


	4. Secret

Free Talk- Chapter four came out really long. The flashback is kind of long, too. I will try to be more consistent. I am having fun writing this story. I really love Eyeshield 21 and I hope that after I finish this one I will have a good idea for another. I would love to write about Koutarou and Juri. All I need is a plot. Anyways, thanks to those who have commented. I hope you continue to enjoy and support this juvenile delinquent love story.

**Bittersweet Symphony**  
By Miss Angel Maxwell

* * *

Chapter 4: Secret

* * *

Eight years ago…

"_Cha-la! Head cha-la!" Meg was singing out loud and punctuating the lyrics with swings of her fists as she waited for the DON'T WALK sign to change. Today she felt particularly energetic and looked forward to a day with her boys. _

_Tokage was already waving at her with both arms from the other side of the street. As soon as the sign changed she ran over to greet him and Rui, but the younger Habashira was nowhere to be seen. Her excess energy stalled._

"_Hey. Where's Ru?" she asked. _

"_He's coming," Tokage assured. "He was looking for something in his closet when I left, said he'd meet us down here."_

_The harmony of several car horns honking at once blared from the cross-walk, stealing both kids' attentions. The source of the motorists' ire was Rui, of course, sprinting across the street when the sign had just changed back to DON'T. He made his opinion of them known with a wave of his middle finger once he'd reached the other side._

_Tokage welcomed him with a harmless knock on the head. "Dummy, you'll get yourself killed!"_

"_Not likely," he snorted._

_Meg was much cooler in her greeting, raising an eyebrow as she asked, "so what's that in your hand?"_

_Rui rolled his eyes. "I gave 'em the finger. So what? Those jerkasses deserved it!"_

"_Not that," she clarified. "Your other hand. That sword… where did it come from?"_

"_Oh right!" he said, beaming proudly as he brandished the weapon. "I stole it from the kendo club at school. It's a practice sword. Pretty cool, huh?"_

_There was nothing really about the sword itself that was cool, but the story that he had stolen it, broken school rules to obtain it, made the object oddly fascinating. "It's pretty cool, I guess," Meg said, careful to keep any covetousness out of her voice. "But what do you need a sword for?"_

"_Unnngh…" Rui groaned, as if he thought she was the dumbest person in Japan for even having to ask. "It's for defeating my enemies."_

_It wasn't so much his reply, but the absolute seriousness with which he said it that sent Meg into a fit of laughter. "Enemies?" she asked between giggles. "What enemies? Who's got enemies in the second grade?"_

_Rui just sulked. "I shoulda known you wouldn't understand. You have no respect for warriors."_

"_I do so!" she shot back. _

"_Name one!"_

"_Android Number Eighteen!"_

"_That's not a real warrior!"_

"_Neither are you!"_

_They were arguing so closely that for a moment their foreheads were pressed together before Tokage shoved them apart. "Come on guys," he said. "You're fighting over nothing. Let's go do something fun." _

_Meg and Rui both stepped back from each other, but neither said a word. From the smug look on his face and the way his long arms were folded over his chest, it was clear that Rui wasn't about to forgive and forget (even if the fight really was over nothing). Meg sure as hell wasn't either._

"_You know what I think would be fun?" she asked coyly. "If Ru the 'warrior' gave a demonstration how he will vanquish his many enemies with that wooden practice sword."_

_A vicious grin spread on his face in response to the challenge. "I'd love to show you." He turned to his brother. "Wanna be my sparing partner, Big Bro?"_

"_Oh no," Meg said matter-of-factly. "You're going to fight me."_

_Rui was incredulous. "Nuh-uh! No way! I'm not fighting a girl!"_

"_Just pretend that I'm one of your," she paused and made a derisive grunt, "enemies. If you can beat me, I'll admit that you're a warrior. If you can't, you'll admit you aren't."_

"_You're on!" Rui spat._

_Tokage (who seemed very enthused about the fight) agreed to be the referee, and together the trio walked to the park where they'd met the year before. There was an open area near the trees that was wide enough for a fight, but still protected from the eyes of nosy kids and prudish adults who didn't approve of fighting._

_The two combatants stood facing each other._

"_It's the fight of the century!" Tokage boomed in his best imitation of a sports announcer. "In this corner, armed only with her own two hands, the cute and feisty Tsuyumine Meg!"_

"_She's not cute!" Rui interjected, but his brother just ignored him and continued._

"_In the other corner, armed with a stolen practice sword, my obnoxious little brother Rui! Ready! Fight!"_

_At first Rui just circled around her. He seemed hesitant. When he finally did swing the sword it was so slow she was easily able to duck under it. _

"_You're not even trying!" she barked._

_Incensed, he raised the sword above his head and chopped downward with a good deal of strength. Not enough strength. Meg caught the sword in her own hands and yanked it out of his. Then she turned its point on him and, since the fight was essentially won already, gave him just the smallest jab in the arm. _

_He shrieked in pain. "Ow woman! What the hell is wrong with you?"_

"_There's no way that hurt," she told him. "You just can't handle losing to a girl."_

"_It did so hurt!"_

"_Oh, please! It didn't even leave a mark!" She grabbed his wrist and pushed up his sleeve. He tried to pull his arm away, but her grip was too tight. Then she saw it, what he was trying to hide, and her stomach filled with ice. Under his skin, right where she'd poked him, was a huge purple bruise, still hot to the touch. _

"_Oh my god," she breathed. "You really do have enemies. Ru, who did this to you?"_

"_Nobody!" he snapped. "I fell off my bike!" He began to pull his sleeve down but Tokage, who had appeared almost instantaneously in front of him, seized his arm and pushed it back up._

_The expressions on the two brothers' faces were like nothing Meg had ever seen before. She felt like she was witnessing a silent conversation that she knew nothing about. After another agonizing moment of silence, actual words were exchanged._

"_This is a new bruise," Tokage said. "He hit you again, didn't he?"_

_Rui's face was turned away, embarrassed, almost shameful. "No," he muttered lowly. "It was Mom this time."_

_Suddenly Meg got the feeling that she had just accidentally discovered the Habashira Family's dirty little secret. It wasn't exhilarating, though. It was terrifying and confusing. When she spoke, her voice came out soft and timid. "Rui… Your mom and dad… hit you?"_

_He didn't answer and wouldn't look at her._

"_Do they hit you, too," she asked Tokage._

_The older boy's face was so uncharacteristically sad it was almost painful to look at. "No," he answered. "Just Rui. Ever since he was a little kid."_

"_Why?" she only mouthed the question._

"_Because they think I'm a sissy," Rui said bitterly. "They wanted a second son just like Tokage, but instead they got me. They love my brother because he's strong and rough and good at sports, and they hate me because I'm not."_

"_But you are strong!" Meg protested loudly. "Just as strong as your brother! Nobody should be hitting you except me!"_

"_It doesn't matter what you think," he grumbled. "In there eyes I will always be their little faggot."_

_Meg felt hot anger bubbling in her stomach, threatening to spill out like vomit. "You've got to prove them wrong, Ru! You've got to become the toughest, strongest, meanest version of yourself! Make them regret they ever laid a hand on you!"_

"_That's why a stole that sword!" he yelled. "And you saw how terrible I was at using it!"_

"_There's gotta be something else you can do," she insisted desperately, "something manly that you'd be great at." An image, something from a long time ago, flickered in her brain and she suddenly realized the answer she was looking for. "You guys stay right here!"_

_She sprinted as if her feet had wings attached, across the street, up the stairs, and down the hall to apartment number forty-two. Then she flew to her room and dove into the box of old stuffed animals in her closet, tearing them out with reckless abandon. At the bottom of the box she found it._

_As quickly as she had run home, she was even quicker in her return to the park. Her boys were waiting exactly where she'd left them, having not had time to even get bored. Meg skidded to a halt in front of them and shoved the thing she'd retrieved into Rui's hands. "Here!" she panted._

"_An old magazine?" he asked, wrinkling his nose doubtfully. He read the title out loud. "Monthly Amefuto?"_

_Meg was still catching her breath, her heart still racing. "That's American football," she huffed. "It's the toughest, manliest sport there is. My dad used to be into it. I saved one of his magazines. I… I think you should play. If you become a football star, your mom and dad will realize that you aren't a sissy or a faggot."_

_As Rui and his brother leafed through the soft, worn pages, Meg saw his face change. His eyes shone with fascination and delight that grew brighter with every turn of the page._

"_I think I might actually like this," he said. _

"_You don't have to play if you don't want to," Tokage reminded. "Don't do it just to keep Mom and Dad off your case. I'll protect you from them." _

"_No," Rui answered. "I really want to do this." He turned another page and he must have seen something good because a wide grin spread on his face. "I think I'm really gonna like this."_

"_You can keep the magazine," Meg told him. She could easily part with it when it made him so utterly happy._

_He seemed surprised by the gesture, though. "Oh, thanks," he said. "Well… you can have my sword then. I'm not going to need it anymore. I'm going to play American football."_

* * *

Lying on her bed and arching her back, Meg strained with all her might to pull together the two sides of her jeans. She knew it wasn't going to happen, but still she tried as hard as she could to get that button and that buttonhole to meet. After one more try she gave up for good and released the breath she'd been holding in.

"Well, Spot," she mumbled to her belly, "you've finally made me too fat for my favorite jeans. At least you've eased up a little on making me spew."

_Oh god, I'm talking to the kid already. I'm going to turn into one of _those _moms if I'm not careful. And why do I keep calling it a dog's name? If I saw it now, would it still look like a spot?_

It was mid-March now, which put her at ten weeks and almost to the end of the first trimester. Days were going by too damn fast. Growing too big for her jeans was just another reminder that she wouldn't be able to hide her pregnancy much longer.

She had made up her mind that she was going to tell Rui first. She felt a lot worse about keeping it from him than she did about keeping it from her mother. After all, Spot was his, too. It was all a matter of timing now, waiting for the right moment. Maybe she'd do it today. Definitely this week.

Unable to fit into her preferred outfit, Meg put on her red tracksuit and headed out to meet Rui. There was somewhere he wanted to drag her to, but he hadn't been very revealing when they spoke on the phone. He was back to his old self again, the unexpected tenderness he'd displayed on Valentine's Day having gone back into hiding.

"Hey woman, what's with the bum clothes?" he greeted as he brought his bike to a stop in front of her house.

"I'm going to ignore that," she replied, claiming her place behind him.

"I was only kidding, woman, jeez. Actually, what you're wearing kind of suits where we're going today."

Her curiosity was piqued. "Oh? So where is our mystery destination?" she asked.

"Somewhere good," he answered. "I promise."

The roads he took were only vaguely familiar. They weren't going to one of their usual haunts. Meg didn't even figure it out until they'd arrived and her excitement fizzled.

"Deimon High School?" she asked flatly. "That's the 'somewhere good' you promised?"

"You don't even know why we're here yet," he said, grinning.

"To pick a fight with that guy, Hiruma?" she ventured a guess.

"Hell no," he answered adamantly. "I'm not that asshole's slave anymore, so I have no reason to start a fight with him. No, today we are here to spy on the interest meeting he's having for next season's prospective members."

Meg didn't bother to hide her annoyance. "What's the point in that? You're not even on the football team anymore. You won't be playing against any of these kids. And how is Hiruma still gonna be involved in Deimon's team? He can't play either."

"Which is exactly what makes the situation so interesting," Rui said thoughtfully. "And that is why we are spying today. The Demon who led a bunch of losers all the way to the top spot in the nation has got to have something up his sleeve for the next generation."

"Whatever," she sighed, though she wasn't completely devoid of interest. Hiruma's evil machinations might not intrigue her the way it did Rui, but the prospect of watching athletic young men practice football in tight pants was enough to keep her from leaving.

Rui chose seats for them in the very last row of the crowded bleachers, too far back for anyone down on the field to notice. This strategic position also meant that the two of them couldn't see clearly what was happening on the field, a fact that Meg was about to point out when Rui pulled a small pair of binoculars from his pocket.

"You didn't think I'd come unprepared?" he asked. "I only have one set, though, so we'll have to take turns. You can take them first, just tell me what you see."

Meg wasn't really sure what she was supposed to be looking for (the spying plan still seemed pointless in her mind). "Well, all the returning underclassmen players are on the field and in uniform. Looks like they're demonstrating techniques for all the kids who showed up and letting them join in."

"Just the underclassmen?" Rui asked. "Where's Hiruma? Do you see him?"

She found him sitting on a bench on the sideline. "From the looks of it, he's just bossing around Eyeshield. I'm guessing the kid is going to be the new captain and the Demon is going to operate through him."

"Makes sense. What kind of new blood has he rounded up? Anyone look promising? Hey, are you even listening woman?"

Her attention was elsewhere as she'd just spotted the Devil Bat _she'd _always found most interesting. "The other rising seniors are there, too. Mmm… Takekura's thighs in those tight pants…"

She'd only meant to think it but inadvertently said it aloud.

"What? Takekura? What the hell are you looking at him for?" Rui's reaction was explosive. "You can't possibly find a guy like that attractive! Now gimme the damn binoculars!"

"Remember your promise, Ru, less of a dick," she reminded as he yanked the lenses out of her hands. "I'm a woman and I like to look at sexy men."

"Yeah, well, he's not your type," Rui grumbled, hunching over moodily as he squinted through the binoculars. "He doesn't even have a bike…"

_Wait… Is he jealous? He actually took my little comment about the hunky kicker seriously? Well, I do have a tiny crush on him, who wouldn't? But it's nothing Ru should feel threatened by. This guy is so fucking confusing! 'Forgets' I'm a girl then gets jealous when I notice other males? For all I know, he'll be happy when I tell him about Spot._

A wave of nausea washed over her stomach, as if the baby inside could tell she was thinking about it and wanted to show its special brand of appreciation. "I hafta go to the bathroom," she said with an edge of urgency.

"That better not be an excuse to get a closer look at Mr. Mohawk!" Rui snapped.

Meg just smiled slightly and patted him on the head. "Keep your promise," she chimed as she stood up. Weaving her way down the bleachers as quickly as possible, she couldn't help noticing all the tracksuits. She really was dressed appropriately, blended right into the crowd.

Thankfully, the ladies' room in the school was vacant, allowing her to puke in solitude. After emptying her breakfast into the toilet (and wondering why the hell they called it 'morning' sickness when it can strike any time of day), she noticed the squeak of the door and the soft sound of steps on tile.

A pair of slender legs (which was all Meg could see) stopped in front of the stall she was in. There was a soft knock and a sweet voice.

"Um… excuse me… This is really, really embarrassing to ask of a stranger but… do you have a tampon you could spare?"

Eager to be rid of the unwelcome company, Meg fished the forgotten little pouch from her school bag and thrust it under the stall door and into the stranger's hands. It was only after it was out of her possession that she remembered what she'd stashed in there weeks ago. With a gasp, she leapt up and burst out of the stall. Not quick enough, though.

"Oh my gosh…" the girl said softly as she peered into the opened bag. She turned around and looked at Meg, who recognized the girl immediately.

"Anezaki…" Meg breathed.

The recognition went both ways. "Tsuyumine… right? You're the manager for the Chameleons."

"Former manager," Meg corrected. No time to chitchat, she got right to the point. "You saw it, didn't you? The test?"

Mamori squirmed slightly, trying to think of what to say. There was definitely fear in the girl's face, a reaction Meg was used to getting from members of both genders. But there was also concern, more obvious when she spoke. "Tsuyumine, are you really pregnant?"

"Yeah," Meg sighed. She didn't know how to deal with this new phenomenon of someone else worrying about her, but something about the way that Deimon girl spoke, with those annoyingly guileless blue eyes, prevented her from giving a rude reply. "Yeah, I'm gonna have a baby… this September."

"But you'll still be in high school," Mamori uttered. "To go through this at such a young age must be so hard. How is your boyfriend, that Habashira guy, handling it? Is he helping you out a lot?"

Now the interrogation, no matter how well intended, was getting too personal. Still, Meg felt a need to inform the girl. "Habashira isn't my boyfriend," she said. "And he doesn't know yet."

"You mean you're doing this all on your own?" Mamori's voice retained its worry but also sounded slightly awed.

"I'm going to tell him soon," Meg said impatiently. "And then I'll tell my mom. I'm just waiting for the right time. Besides, I'm used to doing stuff on my own. Zokugaku girls are a lot tougher than Deimon girls. Now I have to go. Here." She snatched back her pouch, took out a handful of tampons and slapped them into Mamori's hand. "Oh, and you'd better not tell anyone about this, especially that fucked up boyfriend of yours."

"Hiruma is NOT my boyfriend!" the Deimon girl stammered.

Meg was already heading for the door. "I don't give a crap," she said. "Just don't say a word to him." Her fingers were around the door's handle when Mamori called her name.

"Tsuyumine, wait!" Meg stopped and listened as the girl continued nervously. "Um… well… I was thinking that since I'm the only one who knows that you're pregnant, that I should be someone that you trust, someone you can talk to… like a friend…"

"You? My friend?" Meg laughed. "That's cute, Anezaki, but I don't need pity from the Devil Bats' Princess. Just keep this to yourself and our business with each other is done. Have a nice life"

Meg had remained resolutely facing the door for this last bit of conversation and so didn't notice Mamori inching closer and closer to her. Now, as she once again reached for the handle, it caught her completely off guard when the other girl's fingers encircled her wrist. She gasped.

"Just in case," Mamori said softly, pushing up Meg's red sleeve and writing something on her arm with a ballpoint pen from her pocket. "It's my cell phone number. In case you change your mind and want to talk."

_Who does this chick think she is?_ Meg thought as her eyes narrowed on the ingenuous brunette. _She's not being critical or derisive. She didn't even ask what I'm doing at her school!_

"Why are you being so nice to me, Princess?" she asked, wanting to end the mystery.

Mamori seemed surprised by the question, like the answer was obvious. "I just got the feeling that you might want a girl to talk to… since you're always with Habashira. That's all. Besides, everyone deserves kindness. It's not pity."

"Oh… er… Well, thanks… I guess." The words came out a lot sloppier than Meg would have liked. "But like I said, I'm not a charity case. I can manage on my own. You should focus your energy on keeping your boyfriend under control."

The last thing Meg heard as she pushed through the bathroom door was a fervent reiteration of, "Hiruma is not my boyfriend!"

She walked out of the school feeling strangely light. Having her secret known by someone else actually felt kind of good. Then she tried to imagine the relief she would feel when she told Rui. All of the ongoing dread she had been bottling inside her would be gone.

"You sure do take your time when taking a leak, woman." He was waiting just outside the doors to the school and this was the first thing he said. His bike (which he'd retrieved from wherever it was he hid it) was underneath him, growling eagerly. "The interesting part of the meeting is over so I figured we'd just leave. That cool?"

"I didn't even want to do this in the first place," she reminded. Then added, "But as long as you had fun it wasn't so bad. You truly do love American football."

Rui smiled at her, one of those rare, boyish smiles that he only ever showed to Tokage and to her. "It's the best sport in the whole world," he said proudly. "Someday I hope I'll teach my kids to play."

Warmth flooded Meg's chest, a sense of hope she hadn't foreseen.

_Is this a sign? Is this the moment?_

"Whoa!" he exclaimed, looking at her like she was a fire he was trying desperately to put out. "Don't make that freaky face. I was talking about years into the future. Kids are the last thing on my mind right now. I'm not even looking for a girlfriend yet."

It definitely wasn't a sign. But that didn't mean it wasn't the right moment. "Hey Ru?" she said in her most subdued voice. "There's something I want… something I _need_ to talk to you about."

His eyebrows creased in the middle. "Is something wrong?"

"No," she said tentatively. "Well, yes… Sort of. I'd rather talk about it someplace more private than right in front of Deimon High School."

"Alright," he answered, anxiety still tinting his words. "Climb on."

During the entire ride, Meg didn't once look at the road or speculate where he was taking her, just kept her face buried in the back of his jacket as the sound of her heart drowned out the roar of the motorcycle. She'd always loved the smell of that jacket, but now that he'd stopped smoking it was even more intoxicating.

The bike slowed to a stop, and when she opened her eyes she was even more surprised than when they'd arrived at Deimon. "This is… the park where we used to play when we were little. It's seen better days though. Or maybe I'm just remembering it as nicer than it really was."

"At least there were swings back then," Rui commented, gesturing to lonely metal frame dangling four black chains. "Kids don't come to play anymore. That's why I thought it would be private enough for you to say whatever it is you have to say."

"Can we sit down?" Meg asked. "I mean, not on the bike?"

Rui grimaced. "Aw jeez, woman," he whined. "Is it really something that awful?"

"I just want to be able to look at your face while I'm talking."

"Fine, fine," he sighed as he dismounted the bike. Before Meg had a chance to climb off, however, he's swung one of his legs back over and was once again straddling the bike, only now he was backwards facing her. "Will this do?" he asked.

She nodded nervously. "Yeah, this'll do." Despite spending most of her free time with this boy, it was very rare for them to be sitting like this, face-to-face and so close. Their legs were touching slightly and the sunlight through the new spring leaves above threw a mottled pattern over both of them. It felt like some vile shojo comic, which only made Meg more nervous.

Before she had a chance to lose her nerves once again, she took a big breath and began.

"Ru, something happened to me recently, something kind of big… And pretty soon, my life is going to get a lot more complicated. For a while now, I've wanted to tell you because it… well, it kind of involves you, too. I don't if this is the best way to say this but here it goes. I'm…"

_Krrrrrrrring! Krrrrrrrring! Krrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiing!_

Right when she was about to open the hatch and drop the bomb, Rui's cell phone cut off her sentence with its harsh and urgent trilling. Such an irritating ring tone. Rui clenched his jaw and ignored it until after the third repetition when he finally consented to answer it.

"Hello? Oh, hey Bro! Nothing, I'm just wasting time with Meg. In the old neighborhood, near Mamushi and Yamori's. Really? Yeah, I can be there in ten! Count me in! See ya!"

Meg could only hear Rui's side of the conversation, but it was clear from his answers that it was Tokage he was talking to. It was also clear that he had just agreed to meet up with his brother, and since there was only one thing that he responded to with such enthusiasm, Meg knew it was about football.

"You have somewhere to go," she sighed.

He scratched the back of his neck and gave an awkward half-smile. "Tokage invited me to play in a pick up game with some of the other Frilled Lizards. It's a chance to play against college-level players." Meg turned her head from him coldly and he put his hands on her shoulders. "You can finish what you were saying before we leave."

She wilted, utterly defeated by circumstance. "I don't want you to have this on your mind when you're trying to play."

"Oh," he said. "If you come watch the game you could talk to me afterwards."

"Do you mind just taking me home? I'm actually kind of tired." She wasn't lying. Her belly dweller had been draining all her energy lately.

"If that's what you want," he replied with a shrug. "Tell ya what. I'll call you as soon as the game's over and if you want we can meet up and talk about your problem."

Not feeling able to answer verbally, Meg just nodded vigorously. Then Rui did something she never could have anticipated. He wrapped his long arms around her and pulled her tightly against his chest. This was very strange behavior. Habashira Rui was _not_ a hugger.

"Cheer up, woman," he said in a voice that was almost gentle. "You'll get through whatever this is. You're tough."

Neither of them said another word until Rui dropped her off in front of her house and they exchanged goodbyes, with him reiterating his promise to call her. She waited until the sound of his bike engine had faded completely before taking the short walk up to her house.

There was a red overnight bag set outside the door, unzipped with clothes spilling out of the opening. When she got closer, Meg realized that the bag and the clothes belonged to her.

_What the fuck is my stuff doing out her?_

She reached for the door, but it opened before her fingers touched the knob.

Standing in the open space was her mother, unmitigated fury distorting her features, the first black and white picture of little Spot clutched in her talons. Meg felt even sharper claws tearing her chest as her mother's eyes narrowed hatefully on her.

"I want you out of my house you disgusting little slut."

To be continued…


	5. Anezaki Mamori

Free Talk- Yay! Another chapter of my least popular fanfiction ever! It's to be expect since this fic is about an unusual/less popular pairing. But it's not necessarily a bad thing. There's a certain feeling of freedom that comes with writing an unpopular story. You feel more like you're writing it because you are inspired to and not just to please people who want new chapters. That being said, I still worry about it being too boring, especially since so far this fic has been mostly character development with very little action. To those who have been reading and enjoying I just have to say thank you, thank you, thank you. I do have a plan for this story. Please, tell me what you think of the new chapter and the story so far.

**Bittersweet Symphony**  
By Miss Angel Maxwell

* * *

Chapter 5: Anezaki Mamori

* * *

Three years ago…

_The fight was over almost as soon as it had begun. One swift chop brought the older boy down. Unable even to make a yelp of pain, he just lay in the dirt in a fetal position, both hands clasping his pulverized genitals._

_The victorious Meg looked down at the boy with a smug smile. "So, have you learned your lesson about peeping in on junior high school girls changing for gym class?"_

_Her victim, still clenching his teeth in agony, nodded vigorously._

"_Good," Meg chirped, putting on a poisonous smile. "Don't forget to tell any of your pervy friends to stay the hell away from my school, or they'll face the same punishment. Bye-bye now."_

_She stepped lightly over to where Rui was waiting, leaning against a tree. "Remind me never to get on your bad side," he said. _

"_Don't worry, Ru," she said, gently tapping her wooden sword between his legs. "I'll be kind to your testicles."_

_He frowned and his cheeks turned a slightly pinker hue. "Why do you word it like that? You are so fucking weird, woman. It's not surprising that you aren't friends with any other girls."_

"_Girls are annoying," Meg snorted. "If they can't handle the word 'testicles,' they can't handle being friends with me. Besides, you know I'd rather spend my time with you." The last sentence sounded just a little too touchy-feely and she quickly added, "And your brother." _

_She always felt more comfortable speaking of the two Habashira's as a unit. Since Tokage was so much like a big brother to her, it conferred the same status to Rui, and that spared her from having to think of other possible interpretations of their constant companionship._

"_I hope this isn't too mundane a subject matter," he said as they walked away from the schoolyard together, "but have you thought about what high school you want to go to?"_

"_I dunno," she answered with a shrug. "My mom thinks I should go to Deimon."_

"_Deimon?" Rui spat in disgust. "Fuck that! They don't even have a football team! Of course, you know where I'm going to go."_

"_Still have your heart set on Zokugaku?"_

_He stretched his fantastically long arms behind his head as he answered. "Of course. Tokage says the entrance exam is a cinch, so I'm not worried about it. And then I'll get to play for the Chameleons, just like him."_

_Meg couldn't help but smile, though she tried to keep it subtle in case Rui noticed and accused her of mocking him. Rather than make a comment about how cute it was that he idolized his brother (a surefire way to piss him off), she just continued with the school talk._

"_Just to give you fair warning, Ru, the girls at Zokugaku are all a bunch of backstabbing bitches. Or so I heard."_

"_Then you'll fit in perfectly," he said, grinning. _

_At surface level, it was just a rather uninspired insult, but when Meg repeated the line in her head it sounded different. He said 'you'll.' You Will. Not 'you'd.' You Would. _

_"Wait a minute," she said. "Ru, you don't actually think I'm going to go to that skank lair, do you?"_

"_Why not?" he asked encouragingly. "If you went to Zokugaku, you'd rule those skanks and bitches like a queen. _And_ you could manage the football team."_

So that's his real motive_._

"_You think I should manage the Zokugaku Chameleons?" she asked with an eyebrow raised. "Where did you come up with that idea?"_

"_Well, managers are typically females," he explained in a pointedly rational voice. "You, a female, already know the rules of the game better than most of the guys who play. Furthermore, the guys at Zokugaku are the type that need a strict disciplinarian to keep them in line and you are by far the scariest person I've ever met, male or female."_

"_It's kind of far from where I'm living now…" Meg pondered out loud._

"_Bullshit!" Rui interjected. "Besides, I've almost saved up enough to get my bike so I can just give you a ride every day. Stop being so fucking stubborn, woman. You know that at any other school you'll end up getting yourself expelled for fighting. Zokugaku is where you belong."_

_She scratched her chin as she considered his entire argument. "Well…"_

* * *

Meg gaped in horror as the only picture of her baby was crushed into a ball by her mother's vice-tight grip. " Mom…" she squeaked desperately. "Please…"

"Please what?" her mom spat. "Let you explain? Okay, go ahead. Explain to me why, after all the time and money I spent to raise you right, you chose to throw it all away and get yourself knocked up by some punk-ass biker with no future? I'd really love to hear."

"Mom, Habashira isn't…" Meg began.

Mom tore into her mercilessly before she had a chance to continue. "Oh? So he's not the father? Do you even know who the father is, you little tramp?"

Despite how hard she had been fighting them, stinging tears oozed from the corner of Meg's eyes and clung to her lashes. Her mother must have conducted a spontaneous raid on her bedroom while she was out, or maybe she'd attempted to tame the squalor. In either case, the picture she'd uncovered was all the evidence she needed to condemn her daughter and fling such vitriolic words at her.

" Just listen to me!" Meg screeched, her voice a mix of hurt, anger, and frustration.

Her mother closed her eyes and covered her face with a hand. "You know what," she said in a sad, victimized tone. "I've changed my mind. I don't want to hear your explanation. I can't even stand to look at you right now. So, please, just find someplace else to stay and get away from my house."

She didn't allow her daughter to get in one more word, just dropped the crumpled photo to the ground and slammed the door closed. The clack of the deadbolt was indication that this discussion was over.

The tears poised on the rims of Meg's eyes had spilled over and rolled down her cheeks in twin rivulets. She dragged her sleeve across her face to mop them up and stooped down to pick up her photo.

"I guess you and Grandma didn't get off to the best start," she said, forcing a smile as she smoothed out the map of creases that marred the picture. Then, with a sigh, she sank down to a sit. "What are we going to do now?"

The sky responded to her query with a wet plop on the tip of her nose. The benign white dabs of cloud that dotted the sky earlier had swollen and turned an ominous purple. "Just what I need," she grumbled. "Well, I guess I have no choice but to call Rui now."

She pulled her phone from her bag and dialed the number. It helped that she was already feeling a bit surreal from what just happened with her mom. After ten rings, the call went to Rui's voicemail.

_Shit! The game must have already started, which means Tokage won't answer either. Grrr… If the girls at school weren't such bitches I might have a friend among them that I could call. Fuck! I should have gone to Deimon!_

Of course she didn't really wish she'd gone to Deimon, but the thought reminded her of the number written on her arm. She pushed up her sleeve and stared at it anxiously. Was she really so in need of shelter that she would throw out her pride and call _that_ girl for a favor?

A not-too-distant growl of thunder was echoed by a similar sound from her stomach. All she needed was something to eat and a place to stay for an hour or so. It wasn't that big a favor. After pulling in and letting out a cleansing lungful, she dialed.

A cheery voice answered on the second ring. "Hello, this is Anezaki Mamori."

"Hey, Anezaki," Meg mumbled.

"Hello… Who is this?"

"It's, uh… It's Tsuyumine. You know, from the Chameleons…"

Surprise was audible in Mamori's voice, though she remained friendly and pleasant. "Oh, Tsuyumine… Hello. Is something wrong?"

Meg was squirming in her spot, utterly uncomfortable with the conversation yet strangely unwilling to just hang up and find some other place to squat. Why was she intentionally seeking out help from a girl she found so incredibly irritating? For a moment she actually wondered if she was a masochist.

"Are you still there?" Mamori asked. "Are you okay?"

"I've been better," she answered, trying to sound perfectly casual, without weakness. "My mom just kicked me out of the house." There was a tiny gasp on the other side of the phone, but she continued breezily. "Seems she found out about my situation and I guess she isn't too thrilled with the whole pregnant teenage daughter thing. So… uh… I was wondering if maybe I could hang out with you for couple of hours? Just 'til the storm passes, of course."

"Oh, um, of course," said Mamori. She sounded nervous, though. Inviting a yankii into your house was not a decision to be made lightly.

"Thank you," Meg said, and in a last attempt to keep some of her pride added haughtily, "For some reason, none of my friends are picking up their phones and I wouldn't ask you if it weren't about to pour. I'll pay you."

Mamori just chuckled uneasily. "You don't have to do anything like that. Here, let me give you my address."

As it turned out, the Anezaki household was a bit farther away than expected. And yet, Meg found herself stomping her feet across town anyways, arms crossed against her chest as she muttered under her breath about how stupid this was.

"Why am I even bothering? I should just go to the fucking school to stay dry. I'm sure there'd be some twerp I could shake down for food money."

The darkening sky above continued to spit down fat droplets, threatening a deluge at any moment. She quickened her pace and marched resolutely past the tattooed walls of Zokugaku. When she was just two blocks away from her destination, the clouds ripped open and she broke into a run.

No amount of speed could keep her dry, however, and by the time she rang the doorbell, Meg figured she must look like some sad stray cat, drenched and dripping. That's definitely how Mamori reacted when she opened the door.

"Oh my gosh! Tsuyumine! Come in before you catch a cold!"

Meg didn't have to take the first step inside because Mamori pulled her in by the wrist, shut the door, and immediately disappeared down a hallway. She reappeared a second later with a large white towel and handed it to her guest.

"It would be terrible if you got sick," she fretted. "It can't be good for your baby."

After blotting herself off (at least enough so that she was no longer dripping) and squeezing out her long hair, Meg took of her waterlogged sneakers and looked around. The Anezaki household was a painting of domestic comfort. Tastefully decorated and spotlessly clean, it was exactly what one would expect.

"Thanks for letting me come over," she said without eye contact. "I have some clothes to change into…" She paused and gazed down at the flooded travel bag on her arm. "But I guess they won't do me much good now."

Mamori eyed her thoughtfully from head to heels. "Well, you are a bit… taller than I am, but I'm sure I have something that will fit. Why don't you come upstairs and you can take a warm bath while I put your clothes in the dryer and find you something to wear."

The offer was suspiciously generous, but Meg couldn't refuse, not when she was shivering uncontrollably. So she let Mamori be way too nice, let her fill the bathtub with hot water and yuzu salt and take away the sopping clothes she left outside the bathroom. The girl almost seemed happy to have someone to dote on.

It was top-notch doting, Meg concluded as she eased into the sweet, steamy water. She only had a shower at her house and hadn't taken a bath in months. Sitting rather than standing made her much more aware of the little bump between her hips, and she felt a sudden urge to touch until she reminded herself that touching was a gateway to caressing.

_Aw, what the hel_l, she thought, and with just a finger started tracing delicate circles around her baby.

A quiet tap on the door pulled her out of her reverie.

"Is the bath okay?" Mamori asked from outside.

"Perfect," Meg sighed.

Her hostess sounded pleased. "Oh good! I've laid out a clean towel for you and some clothes… well, pajamas actually. I hope that's okay."

This was starting to get ridiculous. "No offense, Anezaki, but your hospitality is a bit extreme. I mean, why are you doing all this for someone you barely know? What could you possibly get out of this?"

"I guess I just like taking care of people," Mamori answered. "It must be maternal instinct."

Meg sank into the water upon hearing that phrase, so far that her chin was submerged. "I'm not sure I believe in maternal instinct," she said in a low voice. "Unless it's genetic, in which case I got seriously screwed."

Outside the door, Mamori made some sad little sigh-like noise and said, "I'm sorry that your mother kicked you out. Maybe once she's calmed down she'll change her mind."

"Eh, I'm not counting on it," Meg said. "Mom's not really the 'forgive-and-forget' type. She still hasn't forgiven my dad for letting himself die of cancer, and that was almost twelve years ago."

There was another squeak from outside and Meg stiffened.

_Aw geez, how did I end up turning a pleasant bath into the Tsuyumine Meg pity hour?_

"It's not all that sad, Anezaki," she quickly explained. "There's no reason for you to feel sorry for me. I get by just fine. I'll get through this too." Then she promptly put the matter behind her. "My fingers are getting pruney, which I think means it's time to get out."

Out of the tub, she toweled off and unfolded the flannel pajamas that had been laid out for her, noting in her head their most distinguishing characteristic. _These are really fucking pink._ But they fit for the most part (her ankles a bit more exposed than intended), and it wasn't like anyone from school was going to see her. She reminded herself to be grateful.

As soon as she stepped out of the bathroom, Mamori called to her from her bedroom. "Second door on the right. I brought up some rice balls for lunch if you want one."

Just what Meg wanted to hear.

So the Chameleons' former manager and the Devil Bats' former manager sat across from each other on the latter's bed silently sharing lunch. It was a situation that, up until today, would have been unimaginable to Meg and, she figured, to Mamori as well. Not to mention anyone else who was acquainted with either of them.

Mamori didn't comment when her guest packed away two large rice balls, just smiled knowingly. "So, who is going to be the new captain of the Zokugaku team?" she asked light-heartedly, trying to talk the way friends would.

"Hell-if-I-know," Meg snorted, not really paying attention. "As soon as Rui was done, I was done." She was currently distracted by trying to lick a truant grain of rice from her cheek (a task that would have been easy for a certain someone), but she was yanked immediately back to reality by what Mamori said next.

"You really do love Habashira, don't you?"

The girl had dropped an L-bomb and its impact was enough to leave Meg stuttering. "No! I mean… not like that. Ru… Habashira is my friend but… I told you, he's not my boyfriend!"

"Yeah, I know, but you are pregnant with his baby. You must have some feelings for him for you to… you know…"

Despite being torn from the pages of those wretched love comics, Anezaki Mamori's naïve, obviously virginal, view of love was strangely endearing. It was how teenaged girls were supposed to imagine love, untainted by the harsh sting of reality. Meg actually hesitated before setting the record straight.

"You know, you don't have to be in love to…" Not wanting to offend the wholesome girl, she just said, "Do that. Sometimes you just get caught up in a moment, when it's just you and him, centimeters away. And you can smell his skin and feel the heat coming off his body. And you just want him. You want him so badly, and you can tell he wants you too because he has this look in his eyes, like he'll die if he can't have you. And you wonder if you have the same look because that's how you feel, and your face is hot, and your breaths just keep coming faster and faster and…"

She had to stop because her breathing now was becoming just like she described. Her heart thudded loudly inside her ribcage.

An absolutely red-faced Mamori could only utter a "Wow."

"Er, sorry," Meg said sheepishly. "I guess I got a little carried away there."

Her companion still seemed agitated, though it wasn't clear whether she was just embarrassed or turned on. In either case, the girl looked awkwardly away as she spoke. "So Tsuyumine, do you, uh, think Habashira is… cute?"

Meg's lips tightened, but despite this effort, a laugh managed to bubble out. "Don't worry, Anezaki," she said. "I wouldn't expect a non-Zoku to get the appeal. At a school where toughness and intimidation rule, a guy like Habashira Rui is very popular with the females. Plus there's the bike. Ooh, and those long arms! Very sexy. I dunno about _cute_ though…"

But of course she did know. Alone in the world, she knew exactly how cute Habashira Rui could be, even if he only showed it very rarely. Like that hug earlier… Her mind started to wander.

"So you do think he's cute," Mamori concluded in a girlish voice. "I can tell from the look on your face."

_Damn! This girl is more intuitive than she seems… Or is my face really that obvious?_

"It's only because we've been friends since we were kids," she attempted to clarify. "So I know what a dork he really is under all that machismo." She was trying to hide her face, apparently a mask of incriminating evidence, from the other girl. When she did look over at Mamori, too curious not to, her head was tilted sideways and she was smiling in a dreamy sort of way.

"Isn't that love?" she asked. "You care about him, and you like being with him, and you're attracted to him. How is that _not_ love?"

Heat oozed into into Meg's face and she frowned severely. "Well by that definition aren't you in love with Hiruma?"

"Hey, that's not fair!" Mamori shouted, riled to the core. "I _don't_ like being with him and I'm definitely, _definitely_ not attracted to him!" Her mouth and her furiously blushing cheeks were telling two very different stories. "He's a bully even if he is brilliant!"

A triumphant grin spread across Meg's face as the Devil Bat princess flailed. "Tell you what," she said. "Let's just say that I love Habashira as much as you love Hiruma. Deal?" She thrust out her hand to seal it with a shake.

Mamori (recovered from her tizzy) didn't take the offered hand. She stared at it for a second and then fell to her side, shaking with giggles.

Hot fury ignited in Meg's chest.

_Treachery! So that's her scheme! Showering me with kindness until I let my guard down just so she can mock and ridicule me! I never should have trusted her!_

"Stop making fun of me!" she barked. "Just stop it!"

Mamori's laughter calmed but she was still smiling, not the least bit threatened. "I'm sorry. I'm not making fun of you, I swear! It's just… Well, you're just so much less scary than I thought, Tsuyumine. You're actually pretty nice."

"Nice?" Meg asked, her lips curled back and her nose scrunched in confusion. Never before had anyone used such a word to describe her. In fact, this was the first time another girl had given her any sort of compliment that wasn't about her tenacity or her swiftness with a sword. It defied both her logic and her experiences. "You really think I'm… nice?"

_Ding-da-la-ling-da-la-ling-ling-LING!_

Her phone had chosen the perfect moment to ring, saving her from the awkwardness of this unexpected sentiment. "It's him," she said out loud.

"I think I'll go see if your clothes are dry," Mamori softly responded, an obvious excuse to give her some privacy. Then she slipped out the bedroom door and closed it behind her.

Meg waited until she was alone to press the 'talk' button. "Hey Ru."

Without even a greeting, the boy on the other end launched into a detailed account of the football game he'd just finished. "You shoulda been there woman! I gave a college guy nearly twice my size a concussion! It was fucking awesome! And then in the second half…"

"Ru," she interrupted. "I really would like to hear about this, really… but uh, right now it's kind of important that we talk about that _thing_ I was trying to tell you earlier."

"Oh…" he said. All the gusto had drained from his voice like air let out of a tire. "You still want to talk about that?"

"Yeah," she said firmly (or perhaps pseudo-firmly). "And it has to be in person, not on the phone. So if you could just come over as soon as possible and… Oh yeah, I'm kinda not at home right now. I'll explain when you get here. The address is…"

"Okay, tell me what the fuck is going on?" he asked impatiently after she'd given him the information.

"Just get over here!"

Since there wasn't a way to slam a cell phone, she snapped it shut as angrily and roughly as possible and threw it down onto Mamori's bed. All she could do now was wait for the low, distinctive growl of Rui's motorcycle.

_How is this going to look to him? After keeping it secret for three months, only telling him I'm pregnant now that I've got nowhere to live? No matter how I try to explain it, it's going to sound like I'm asking to move in with him. Oh god! And what if he freaks out?_

Strangely, this last concern never entered her mind when she'd still had a home to live in while he collected his bearings, or longer if he never did.

There was a Rocket Bear mascot clock on the wall that was ticking noisily, and it was making her edgier with each second that passed. She got up and walked to the window. The clear blue sky reflected in puddles down on the street, the only evidence that a rainstorm had passed through. The bedroom door opened behind her.

"Your clothes still need a few more minutes," Mamori said. "I almost forgot, your picture that was in your pocket was really wet so I set it on my desk under the lamp to dry. It's a little torn though."

Meg had still been staring out the window, but she turned around now. "Hey, Anezaki," she said softly. "I just… I want to say… I want to thank you for being so nice to me today." The words were easier to say than she thought they'd be. "But I hate feeling indebted to anyone, so… If you could think of some way I can repay you for today, any way at all, I'd really appreciate it."

"I'll see what I can come up with," the brunette said, surprising Meg who was expecting her to brush off the request in accordance with her whole martyr persona.

_So I guess she's not a total pushover. Though I suppose it makes sense since she has to deal with that guy. This chick is interesting._

Being so acutely primed to the sound, Meg sensed the approaching motorcycle before Mamori did, before anyone else ever would have. She could almost triangulate exactly where it was coming. "He'll be here in about thirty seconds," she sighed. "I guess I'd better go out and meet him."

By the time she stepped out, barefoot, onto the Anezaki's front steps, he was already pulling up. "Hey woman," he greeted as he dismounted and sauntered up to meet her. When he got closer he did a double take. "Holy fuck! What's with the pink?"

"Shut up, it's a loaner," she informed him. "At least I'm not covered in mud."

Underneath his white jacket, Rui's gym pants and t-shirt were caked in impasto-thick mud. It was on his face as well, mingling with drying blood from a crack in the corner of his lip, evidence that he'd had a good game.

"So, where the hell are we?" he asked. "Whose house is this?"

"It's Anezaki Mamori's house," she answered calmly.

"Hiruma's chick? What the…! Why the hell are you at her house?"

"I needed a place to ride out the storm." She shivered, her hair still wet from the bath and the flannel pajamas not quite thick enough to protect from the chilling breeze.

Right away, Rui took off his jacket and draped it over her. "Sorry, but all that pink is just too distracting. I have to cover it up if I'm going to take you seriously."

She slid her hand into sleeves that were way too long and wrapped the sides around her like a blanket. Then she dropped her butt to the pavement and he sank down next to her.

"So what's this all about?" he asked.

Meg picked up a wet twig and swirled the end in a tiny puddle on the concrete then wrote the characters for her last name with the moisture. "Mom kicked me out," she said, keeping her eyes determinedly down on her work.

"What?" Rui asked, not yelling like usual, but confused and bitter. "Why did that bitch kick you out?"

The stick clattered out of her hand and she finally looked at him. His green eyes were narrowed, his sparse brows knit together above them in worry. Each detail of his expression was a cocked gun ready to explode with fury, and Meg prayed that she didn't have her finger on the trigger when she spoke.

"Rui, I'm pregnant."

To be continued…


	6. Close Quarters

Free Talk- This chapter opens with the final flashback- after the Christmas Bowl. So, just to give a heads up, it is MILDLY EROTIC! Nothing too graphic though, since it is rated T. Now that the flashbacks are done and the backstory is complete, the plot will start to move more quickly. I am really worried that this story is boring. Is it? Please tell me if it's totally boring. I want to make it better. So please tell me what you think.

**Bittersweet Symphony**  
By Miss Angel Maxwell

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Chapter 6: Close Quarters

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Christmas…

"_So this is where you're hiding." Though she spoke softly, the tiled walls of the locker room amplified her voice and carried it to the boy slouched on the far bench with his back to her. "You know, I've been looking for you for nearly an hour."_

"_Why?" Rui asked, unmoving. "Why don't you just go home, Meg?"_

"_You're my ride, Ru, remember?" She took a step forward and he whipped his head around to snap at her._

"_Don't come any closer. Just go away, woman!"_

_Ignoring the order, she continued walking until she was standing in front of him. "I'm not leaving you here to wallow," she said firmly. "It's late. The security guards will be sweeping through soon."_

_Head down and hunched over, Rui didn't seem to be listening. "I just wanted to see what it was like," he finally sighed. "Trying to imagine what it was like for them, for _that_ guy…"_

_The bitter edge in his voice was clearly a product of the jealousy he felt towards Hiruma Youichi, who just hours ago was celebrating the sweetest victory, along with his teammates, in this very locker room. Meg couldn't fault him for that. She was jealous too._

"_It should have been you," she said._

"_Oh, cut the shit," he snorted. "You were there. You saw how we fucked up against Kyoshin. Hiruma and his fucking Devil Bats did what we couldn't."_

_She hadn't seen Rui so defeated since that day, years ago, when she'd discovered the bruise on his arm where his mother hit him. Now, just like that day, the feelings of inadequacy he'd fought tooth and nail to keep hidden were exposed to her. _

"_I didn't say it should have been the Chameleons," she said sharply. "I said it should have been _you_, Rui."_

_"Me?" he spat, suddenly vicious. "Why? Even wielding a knife, I couldn't motivate those pieces of trash to win. I'm as worthless as they are."_

_Anger seared Meg's stomach like hellfire. Unable to tolerate one more word she gripped the collar of Rui's shirt and heaved him to his feet. "What the hell is wrong with you? Spouting shit like that? Feeling sorry for yourself?"_

_He glared acidly at her, his eyes just centimeters from her own. "I'm not feeling sorry for myself!"_

"_You are!" she barked back. "And it's pissing me off! You think you're the only one who wanted Zokugaku to go to the championship? The only one who had their heart broken by this tournament?"_

"_Oh please! If the other guys had wanted it they wouldn't have given up!" he roared._

_Meg's eye's burned as grief started to bubble up beneath the rage. Words spilled from her mouth like vomit. "I'm not talking about the guys on the team! I'm talking about me! Why do you think I played slave driver all summer? Why do you think I even became the Chameleons' manager?"_

"_Why _did_ you become manager?" he asked furiously._

"_Because I'd do anything in my power to help you achieve this dream," she said, words that had been sealed by her own pride until now. "It was all for the sake of getting you to the Christmas Bowl, Rui. Because, for the past eight years, my dream… was for everyone in Japan, your brother your parents and everyone else, to see how incredible you are."_

_As soon as this confession was loosed, so were her pent up tears. Immediately, she spun around and retreated against the closest wall, pressing her forehead against the cool tile as the embarrassing trickles rolled down her face. _

I said it. Dammit! Now Ru must think I'm just some pathetic cloying fangirl… that I made his goal my priority out of pity. He'll never buy it that I truly believe in him. How could he when I've got these stupid tears in my eyes, making me look like a fucking sap? Errr! But they won't fucking stop!

_Meg suddenly felt something warm on the top of her head, seeping through her hair. Two large hands made contact with the tiles on either side of her body. She could hear his deep, angry breathing behind her and twisted around to face him. There was fire in his eyes._

"_Look, Ru, I…"_

_She tried to explain, but he extinguished her sentence with his mouth. Apparently that eye fire wasn't anger. Despite the utter shock of this unexpected kiss, Meg didn't fight it or push him away. After the first second, her astonishment dissolved and she deepened the connection, lacing her fingers into his black hair and pulling his face roughly against hers. _

_The tip of his tongue probed her lips and they parted without resistance, allowing it to snake inside her mouth. Long and nimble, his tongue coiled around hers and caressed the roof of her mouth. The obscene appendage had a higher purpose after all. _

_A tiny moan slipped from her throat and he relinquished her mouth so she could catch her breath. Her respiration was ragged, but so was his. The two looked at each other but neither spoke. A primitive, wordless conversation was already taking place between them as they confirmed with looks that they both wanted the same thing._

_She pulled his mouth against hers again, greedily. His hands, still cold from the tile, found her hips and slid up under her blouse as he kissed her. She gasped into his mouth as a chilled digit slipped beneath the black lace covering her left breast and teased the sensitive flesh. Pleased with the reaction, he gave the same attention to its sister with his other hand._

_Throaty sounds were coming with each breath she took now. Liquid heat flowed through her body, gathering between her legs._

Fuck! What am I doing? It's Rui! My best friend! This is bad! This is wrong! This is… mmm… nice…

_In the hormone-addled brain of a teenager, lust trumped logic every time._

_Her hands untangled from his hair and moved down to the front of his pants. She could feel his erection straining against the fabric as her clumsy fingers worked to free it. Once the belt, button, and zipper were all overcome, she dipped her hand down into his boxers and pulled him out over the waistband. The contact made him shudder._

"_Dammit," he cursed under his breath, as his hands retreated from her bra and began tugging up her long skirt, bunching it around her waist. One hand smoothed up the inside of her thigh, parting her legs, but when it reached her apex she panted out a single word._

"_Wait!" _

_Rui stopped and stared at her like a man in the desert who'd just been denied water._

"_Is this going to ruin our friendship?" she asked._

"_I don't fucking care," he breathed lustily._

"_Then neither do I…"_

_He didn't remove her panties, just shifted them enough to allow him to enter her with one slow, deep thrust. The sting of penetration made her wince and he swooped down to seize her mouth in a possessive kiss as he moved inside her._

_Meg welcomed the pain, hooking her legs around his waist to pull him deeper into her body. Her arms threaded under his shirt and jacket to grasp at the taut muscles of his back and shoulders. His weight pinned her against the tile wall and his hands on her ass steadied her._

_She rocked her body against his, matching the rhythm of his hips as they bucked between her thighs. "Nnnn… Rui…" _

_It was hearing her moan his name that seemed to send him over the edge. He buried his face in the juncture of her neck and shoulder and came inside her with a feral growl._

_That last powerful thrust and the wild, animalistic sound he produced pushed her over the same cliff. Her teeth sank into the collar of his jacket and her limbs tightened desperately around him, like steel cables, as waves of pleasure coursed through her. There was only one word fit to describe the glory of this moment and she groaned it through her clenched jaw._

"_Touchdown!"_

_For several blissful seconds she remained wrapped around him, her numbed appendages barely able to hold on against gravity. While their bodies were still joined, Meg felt Rui's hot breath in her ear and her stomach twisted uncomfortably. This is when he would tell her it was a huge mistake, that they never should have done it._

_When he whispered, however, it was not regret he expressed. "Come on, Meg, let's go back to my apartment."_

_The morning of December twenty-sixth, she awoke in a bed that wasn't hers, wearing nothing but panties and a green checked shirt that was way too big. The sheets were damp and smelled like sex and there were three empty condom wrappers on the nightstand, but Rui was gone. Meg was alone._

* * *

"How… How did you get pregnant?" Rui asked, ashen faced.

Meg stared at him incredulously. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that it happened when you and I had sex."

"But it was only one night…" he said, his voice cracking slightly. "And I used condoms."

"Yeah, for the main event," she reminded. "But what about the opening act in the locker room? Did you forget?"

Based only on his facial reaction, Meg guessed that he actually _had_ forgotten. His eyes scrunched in thought and then widened in horror. He dropped his forehead into his hands and raked all ten fingers through his hair before looking up, clearly distressed.

"So what are we going to do?" he asked in a dry, scratchy voice.

She remained calm. His response so far was much more mature than the nightmarish scenario that had been incubating in her imagination. "Well," she said. "_I'm_ going to have a baby. I don't know what you're going to do. That's up to you to decide."

He looked at her anxiously. "You're really going to keep it?"

There was judgment folded into his voice and it pissed her off. "Why is that so hard to believe?" she hissed. "It's not like I'm the first high school girl to ever get pregnant and keep the baby. These days it happens all the time."

"Yeah, but Meg…" Rui paused. His expression was strained as if he was searching his brain for the most delicate way to phrase the rest of his sentence. "You hate children."

Not exactly delicate, but it was the truth.

Feeling strangely exposed, she hugged her knees protectively against her chest and tucked in her chin. "I don't think it's about liking or wanting kids for me," she said thoughtfully. "When I found out I was pregnant I just… I couldn't get rid of it. And even now, when I don't even have a place to live, it still feels like I made the right choice."

Again, he dragged his fingers through his hair in frustration, this time yanking out several dark strands. "Ah shit, that's right," he growled. "I can't believe she really kicked you out of your house."

Meg gave a contemptuous little snort. "Yeah, well, Mom's not exactly the most compassionate woman."

"Wanna trade?" he asked cynically.

_That's right. No matter how cold my mother is towards me, Rui's parents are twenty times worse. At least mine never caused me bodily harm. Heh, if I had his folks I'd probably have moved out in junior high, too. Of course, I don't have an older brother to take me in… though that would really come in handy right now…_

"So I guess you'll be moving into the apartment with us," he sighed.

It turned out she didn't even have to ask. He'd brought it up himself. And yet a new feeling of apprehension itched behind her ribs. "You aren't just asking out of pity, right?" she asked suspiciously. "And it's not because you feel you have a duty towards me, right? Because I don't accept those kinds of offers."

"Hell no," he grunted. "I'm doing it because I have a duty towards the rest of the world. You think I'm going to inflict you, about to get all fat and bitchy, on anyone else? I wouldn't even wish that on Hiruma."

Putting on a fake scowl, she smacked his shoulder with the back of her hand. "Oh shut up!"

"Ouch! You're already a bitch, woman."

Offsetting his rude words was an amused smile that put Meg at ease. "I gotta hand it to you, Ru, you're taking this news much better than I expected. Are you sure you're okay?"

His optimistic smile settled into a more serious expression and when he spoke his voice reflected the change of face. "I'm going to be honest with you, Meg… I don't think it's really even sunk in yet. It just doesn't seem real. I mean… you with a baby? I can't even imagine it."

"Just picture the kid in one hand and my sword in the other."

Silence followed. It seemed her attempt to lighten the tension between them only made things more awkward by reminding them both how ill-suited she was for motherhood. The pause persisted until relief arrived in the dainty form of Anezaki Mamori.

"Hey Tsuyumine," she said, poking her head out the front door of her house and then shrinking slightly at the sight of Rui. "Your, uh… your clothes are all dry now, what you were wearing and the stuff from your bag. I…" Her cheeks were pink in embarrassment. "I just realized that I'm probably intruding, so I'll just…"

"It's okay, Anezaki," Meg reassured. "I think it's about time for me to get going anyways. I've worked out a place to stay for now." Her eyes flitted over to Rui. "Wait here while I get changed."

Entering Mamori's bedroom for a second time, Meg found her red tracksuit laid out for her and her overnight bag dried out and already neatly packed.

_Now that woman is going to make one hell of a mother._

Shrugging out of the long white jacket, she noticed an arc of little dents and tears on the collar. Teeth marks. Her face remained flushed for the rest of the wardrobe change. She hadn't realized what a fierce bite she packed.

Mamori was waiting for her at the entranceway of the house. "Here," she said, placing Meg's cell phone in her hand. "I programmed my info into the address book feature, so you can call me or email me at least once a month so I know you're okay."

"What?" Meg whined.

"Remember," the other girl chirped, "you owe me. Oh yeah! Don't forget this either. It's still kind of mushy." She handed over the water-damaged sonogram photo.

"Thanks. Again… for everything." She leaned close to Mamori and added in a hushed snarl, "But if you ever speak of word of this to that pointy-eared sociopath, I will break your friggin' teeth. Capisce?"

Utterly unafraid of the Zokugaku girl, Mamori just giggled. "Don't worry, Tsuyumine. I won't tell a soul." Then she surprised her with a farewell hug. "Take care of yourself, okay?"

"I… uh… well… goodbye…"

Outside, Rui was straddling his bike, the motor already revving. "You all packed up, woman?" She nodded and climbed on behind him. "Alright then, let's go home."

The apartment shared by the Habashira brothers was not in a bad neighborhood. It wasn't in a "good" neighborhood by any standards, but it was a far cry from the hellhole Rui told their schoolmates he inhabited. Only at Zokugaku did students lie to make their living situations _more_ dangerous.

As often as she'd seen its plain exterior, this would actually only be the second time Meg set foot inside the apartment. She was about to move into a home she had only been inside one time, and even then she was too distracted by, well, other things to notice interior décor.

Not sure what to expect, she took in a big breath before crossing the threshold. It couldn't prepare her for what she found inside. "Holy shit!" she exclaimed, her brown eyes saucer-wide as they took in the environment. "_This_ is how you live, Ru?"

He gave her a look like she was an alien making the observation on her first glimpse of Earth. "Actually, this is how most people live."

"They do not!" she proclaimed loudly. "If most people lived like this, they'd have no time to do anything but clean and organize!"

Indeed, the Habashira bachelor pad was so spotlessly neat it would put even the most dedicated housewife to shame. All the books in the bookcase were sorted by subject matter and author's name, CDs and DVDs by date released and title respectively. He obviously had a system.

The kitchen was even worse. Without asking, Meg flung open all of the cabinet doors. With foods arranged by nutritional group, and dishes by size, the cupboards looked more like supermarket shelves. Inside the refrigerator was just the same. How had she not noticed any of this the last time she was here?

"Wow!" she gasped. "Ru, you must be the most anal-retentive person in the world! This is a whole different side to you."

Rui was not taking the inspection with good humor. "Do you always do this?" he criticized. "Someone invites you into their home and you just start boldly nosing through all their stuff?"

"But this is my home, too," she reminded, her eyes and her hands firmly focused on searching the contents of the open fridge.

"Well that doesn't mean you can mess everything up," he said with a frown. "See! You just moved the mustard. Condiments _always_ go in the door."

She stared with a mix of shock and fascination as he hastily set about rectifying the disorder she'd caused.

_What is going on here? Did I accidentally step into a different dimension?_

"Hey bro!" A booming welcome was followed by a door slam that shook the whole apartment and a moment later Tokage had joined them in the kitchen. It took him a moment to notice that there was an extra person in the room, but when he did he reacted with delight. "Ah! Meg's here!"

She couldn't help returning his smile. He was still the big, loud, lovable jock he was as a kid, and the guy she'd wished was her big brother. "Long time, no see," she said.

Tokage's grin stretched to the edges of his huge square face. "C'mere, lemme give you a hug!" He pulled her in with tree branch sized arms and crushed her against his massive frame, squeezing her so tight that for a moment she couldn't breath.

"Hey, put her down!" Rui protested. "You'll break her spine!"

This was how Tokage always hugged her, but it was the first time Rui had ever interfered. Meg wondered if it was because he knew what was in her belly and was trying to protect it.

"So, to what do we owe the pleasure of this visit?" the older brother asked.

"It's not exactly a visit," the younger replied awkwardly. "Meg's actually going to be shacking up with us for a while. Her mom kicked her out."

"Awesome!" Tokage bellowed, throwing one arm around Meg and one around his brother. "It'll be just like the good old days! So, what'd you get the boot for? Fighting? Stealing?"

"Pregnant," she answered. "With your niece or nephew."

"No shit! Meg-o is preg-o?" the prospective uncle uttered, staring at her in awe. Then he turned to Rui and slapped his back so hard he almost fell over forward. "Way to go, little brother! Why didn't you tell me you two were finally a couple? I've been waiting years for this to happen!"

"She and I are _not_ a couple," Rui stated adamantly. "We just… It's complicated, alright? And I'm not sure what I'm gonna do yet. For now she just needs a place to live."

"Oh, okay." Tokage sounded crestfallen, but he kept on a smile and patted the top of Meg's head. "Well, it's still great to have you aboard, little mama. I'll make something really nice for dinner tonight."

In this apartment, the older brother did the cooking and the younger did the cleaning, an ideal division of labor since both excelled at their roles. Tokage's special dinner was beef stir fry loaded with Meg's favorite sugar snap peas, her second homemade meal of the day. The food was a lot easier to digest than the day's events, though. She still felt like she was in a dream.

After dinner, she went to Rui's room to get changed for bed. Unlike the rest of the apartment, this room gave her a distinct feeling of déjà vu. It was just as obsessively neat as the other rooms, but there were little details that made it feel more welcoming: a football on the desk, old issues of _Monthly Amefuto_ and _Champ Road_ (in chronological order of course), things that reminded her of the boy who lived here.

Unfortunately, Meg's mother hadn't paid much attention to what she was tossing into the bag and there was a distinct absence of anything resembling pajamas. There wasn't even a plain t-shirt to put on. So, with no other choice, she turned to the dresser and found a green checked Zokugaku shirt. She shed her tracksuit in a heap on the floor and pulled the shirt on, upping that déjà vu feeling. Then she peeled back the quilt on the flawlessly made bed and tucked herself in.

The door creaked opened.

"What the hell are you doing in my bed, woman? And wearing my shirt?"

"I was trying to sleep," she said haughtily. "Until you barged in, Ru." He folded his arms over his chest and glared at her and she continued in a more pleading voice. "Come on, Ru, don't make me sleep on the floor. Wherever I sleep, the baby sleeps, and you wouldn't make your baby sleep on the floor, would you?"

"Fine, fine," he sighed in defeat. "I'll take the floor."

"Can't we just share the bed?" she asked innocently. "I mean, there's nothing wrong with two people who aren't a couple sharing a bed if all they're going to do is sleep, right?"

Another sigh came from Rui as he shut the door behind him and climbed into the bed next to her. "This is just for tonight, though. We'll work out a permanent sleeping arrangement tomorrow."

Meg's heart beat louder and faster just being in the same bed as him, even if the night's only activity would be chaste sleep. "Quite a day," she said softly, trying to ease the tension she felt.

"Yeah," he said.

"I'm going to start looking for a part-time job tomorrow," she said. "So I can save up some money. I won't be burden to you, I promise."

Without warning, he pulled down the quilt and slid his hand under the shirt she was wearing.

"Hey!" she stammered, assuming he was trying to cop a feel. But it wasn't her tits he was after. He lay his warm hand over her bare stomach, just bellow her belly button, and for some reason this touch seemed far more intimate than anything sexual.

"There's really a kid in there, huh?" he asked.

"Our baby," she breathed.

To be continued…


	7. Zokugaku

Free Talk- I don't really have any comments to add to this chapter. Oh! Candy corn is amazing! Mellocreme pumpkins, too! And, of course, thank you for the comments and support.

**Bittersweet Symphony**  
By Miss Angel Maxwell

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Chapter 7: Zokugaku

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**To:** "Anezaki Mamori"

**From:** "Tsuyumine Meg"

**Subject:** Re: How are you?

Jeez Anezaki! You always reply to my emails so damn fast. It almost makes me feel bad for taking so much time.

To answer your first question, no, I will _never _get tired of calling Hiruma your boyfriend. So you'd better just get used to it.

I still haven't figured out why you give a shit, but the belly dweller and I are both very healthy according to Dr. Minagawa. I can't call it "Spot" anymore after the most recent picture. It looks more like a little monkey now. Oh yeah! Did I mention that it moves now? Freaked me the hell out the first time I felt it. Still does a little bit… I can't shake the feeling like my body has become host to a parasitic alien life form, which I guess it sort of has…

It's kinda cool, though.

I'm working at the bike shop almost every day after school now, not just because I need the money (apparently babies are fucking expensive), but because I'm enjoying it and learning a lot. Fixing motorcycles is as artistic as it is technical. Kirihara, the guy who owns the shop, says I have talent and thinks I should get into customization.

Mom still won't return my phone calls or reply to my emails. I guess she's still pissed. It's okay. We're probably better off without her, me and the baby.

Hmm… I guess that covers everything except Rui. I'm not really sure what to say about him. At first he seemed to be taking the situation remarkably well, which he said was because it hadn't "sunk in" yet. Now I'm starting to wonder if he's really just in denial. He acts like everything is the same as it's always been, like I just moved in because they needed a third roommate to make rent or something. You know, in the 2 months since I told him, I've only heard him utter the word "baby" once, and that was in reference to his bike.

My belly is getting harder to ignore, though. Occasionally I catch him taking a quick, sideways glance at it, like it's a time bomb just ticking down to the day it ruins his life.

But I can't be mad at the guy. He didn't ask for this. How's a 17-year old guy supposed to react to knocking up a girl he doesn't even love?

Well, I'm not even going to ponder that question tonight because it's late and I'm starting to fall asleep at the keyboard. Growing another human being is remarkably tiring.

Tsuyumine Meg

p.s. Don't feel you have to reply right away. Take your time. Enjoy life! Hang out with your demonic boyfriend!

(email sent 11:56pm 5/22)

* * *

Meg was dragged out of her sleep by a sensation akin to how swallowing a skittish parakeet might feel. Her heavy eyelids opened enough to look at the clock on the nightstand. It was six forty-five.

_Way to wake me up fifteen minutes before the alarm goes off, kid. There's no point even trying to get back to sleep now._

As her senses continued to awaken, she noticed a warm weight slung over her torso. That guy just didn't know how to keep his long arms on his side of the bed. The thing in her belly flailed again and a groggy voice muttered in her ear.

"Your stomach is possessed, woman."

"It's the baby, dummy," she replied without rolling over to look at him. "I told you I can feel it moving now."

"Yeah, but I didn't know that meant it could be felt from the outside, too. That is creepy as shit."

Meg shoved the lazy limb off of her body and sat up with a huff. "If it creeps you out so much, maybe you should keep to your side."

"This is _my_ bed," Rui stated emphatically. "Both sides are mine. You're only sleeping in it because you refuse to use that expensive futon… which you picked out for yourself, by the way." He sat up next to her, frowning, but after a moment his expression became more apologetic. "I didn't mean creepy like it's a bad thing. It's just… different…" His hand moved to her round belly. "Make it do it again."

She raised an eyebrow. "_Make it_? What the hell kind of powers do you think I have? It moves when it wants to move, not on request."

"Go ahead and move, kid," he spoke in the general direction of her stomach. "Move so I can prove your mother wrong."

"Oh please," Meg said with a dramatic eyeroll. "That is not going to…" The fluttering little bird feeling interrupted her sentence and a smug grin spread across Rui's face. "That was just a coincidence!" she insisted.

Her words did nothing to thwart the look of victory in his eyes. "The kid just likes me better," he proudly declared.

A sharp, smartass remark (her usual response to his puffed up ego) was out of the question this time. This was the first bit of real interest he'd shown in the little creature in her belly and she wasn't going to ruin it just so she could have the last word. His fingers spread out over the bump.

"What do you suppose he's doing in there?" he asked.

"Probably just kicking," she answered. Then she looked down at her stomach and added, "Isn't that right, little Gen Junior?" So much for the ban on smartass comments. She'd opened her mouth and it just came out.

Rui's hand retracted and he twisted away. "I've gotta stop wasting time and start getting ready."

"Oh come on," Meg pleaded. "It was only a joke. I didn't…"

_BZZZZZZZZZZZZT! BZZZZZZZZZZZZT! BZZZZZZZZZZZZT!_

The wails of the digital alarm clock not only severed the end of her argument, but startled her so badly every muscle tensed simultaneously and her body leapt up. Rui, who was busy exchanging his sweatpants for school pants, stopped what he was doing and stared at her for a moment then burst out laughing.

"That was fucking hilarious, woman! I bet you cleared two feet with that jump. You looked just like a spooked cat with its hair standing up."

Had her heart not still been pulsing in her throat like a jackhammer, Meg might have been able to see the humor in the situation. As her breathing returned to normal, she was hit in the face with her school uniform, thrown at her by Rui.

"Hurry up and get dressed," he urged. "We're running late. You're okay walking to work on your own, right? I've got another game with the Lizards right after school and it's in the opposite direction."

"I'll be fine," she said as she pulled on her blouse. The walk wasn't long, and both of them knew from experience that she could defend herself against any threat short of an oncoming train. But for unexplainable reasons, she kind of wanted him to pretend that he was worried about her.

The Zokugaku uniform wasn't fitting so well these days. The celadon blouse barely zipped up now, and the white skirt, which used to circle her hips, now had to be worn high up on her waist. "Craaaap!" she growled loudly, arching backwards to aid her struggle to pull the zipper over her swollen breasts. "I didn't notice how big the girls were getting."

"I did," Rui admitted without hesitation, his eyes shamelessly fixed on her chest. "Does it really matter since you're going to have that big jacket on over them?"

She had finally managed to stuff her generous endowment into her top, but was still making little adjustments while she responded. "I think it's time to put away the jacket. The weather is already too warm for it." She looked up and immediately noticed Rui's anxiously knitted brows.

"No more jacket, huh?" he said. "And everyone at school is going now that you're… in the condition that you are in."

Smiling gently, she pointed out, "I've been wearing a big ass jacket over my uniform in May. I think they already know."

His nervous expression eased just a little. "Maybe you're right. It's still pretty damn bold of you though. Hell, it's shocking enough that you're even showing up at school anymore. You've gotta be the first Zokugaku chick ever to not quit after getting herself knocked up."

"Excuse me? Got _myself_ knocked up?" she asked, giving him a sharp glare. "I'm a woman of many talents, yes, but self-fertilization is not one of them."

Rui rolled his eyes and grunted in annoyance. "You know what I meant." He started fidgeting a bit and continued in a more wary voice. "So, uh… are you going to make a big announcement that it's… _mine_?"

"Oh…"The way her own voice sounded, soft and almost disappointed, surprised her. "Did you… not want me to tell?" There was an uncomfortable, nameless feeling throbbing in her chest.

Rui seemed to recognize that there was something not quite right with her because he was making the face he always did when he didn't want to deal with something emotional. His lips curled down over clenched teeth and his eyes focused on anything but her face. "I don't _not _want you to. I just don't see any reason to make a big deal out of it."

"Alright," she said tersely. "If it really bothers you, I can always just go with my Gen Junior story."

"Okay," he grumbled, reaching out and mussing her hair with one hand. "You've had your fun. Let's just go to school and see what happens."

While she did wish that he would show some concern for the woman carrying his child, Meg was actually quite pleased that he still drove his bike exactly the same as always when she was perched on the back. Every time she'd climbed on that rebuilt Zephyr, she was entrusting him with her life. And, just as she knew he would never allow her to come to harm while on his bike, she knew her precious cargo was safe as well.

They arrived at Zokugaku in their usual fashion, but when she dismounted, she definitely noticed a difference in the way Rui's entourage looked at her. Whether or not they'd already figured it out, Meg's baby bump was now on full display for the entire student body.

Gawks and whispers were inevitable.

_You have nothing to be ashamed of_, Meg reminded herself, straightening her spine and lifting her chin as her boots clicked brazenly down the hallway. Rui seemed more perturbed by the unwanted attention then she did, walking next to her with less of a swagger than usual.

"Do these dumb fucks really have nothing more interesting going for them than staring at your big tits and stomach?" he sneered. "Moronic trash…"

"It won't last," she said optimistically. "Tomorrow, after the shock has worn off, they'll be back to the usual drinking, smoking, and vandalizing." She stopped her feet. "Hey, I gotta use the ladies' room. I'll meet up with you in class."

"Whatever," he said with a shrug, though she could tell he was glad to have the stares off of him for a few minutes.

A plume of grey smoke swirled out into the side hall when Meg pushed in the bathroom door. Even months after giving up cigarettes, the tang of tobacco still had an enticing edge in her nostrils. She fanned it away from her face with her school bag as she found a stall not occupied by a smoker.

On the back of the stall door, on top of many semesters' worth of obscene graffiti, someone had carved the words: Tsuyumine is a fat whore!

She remembered how, in her freshman year, she had been a major contributor of slanderous bathroom scrawls. It seemed so stupid to her now. Actually, lot of things about this school seemed stupid to her lately.

When she emerged from the bathroom, two of those stupid things were waiting for her, one with thick, gaudy makeup, the other with her blouse half-zipped and an exposed pushup bra. They were the first years who gave Rui chocolates on Valentine's Day.

The one with bad makeup flashed a disgustingly insincere smile and spoke in a slimy voice. "Hey, senpai. I see the rumors were true after all. And here I just thought you were getting fat."

"Do you know who the father is?" the other girl asked in the same poisonous tone. "I think I read somewhere that you're a _fat whore_, so I guess it could be any guy. Mmm, but it is nice to see Zokugaku's queen dethroned."

"Dethroned?" Meg said with a mocking snort. "I think you little brats take this whole status thing _way_ too seriously."

"Just the sort of thing a declawed cat would say," pushup bra said.

"Drop out already, you useless brood mare," bad makeup added. She moved in closer, threateningly, and dragged a long, crimson fingernail down the front of Meg's bulging uniform.

Hot fury ignited in the pregnant girl's chest, but she kept her cool exterior intact and gracefully pulled her wooden sword from her bag. "I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, but you bitches leave me no choice."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the pushup girl chimed, reaching into her deep cleavage and pulling out a razor blade. "That is, unless you're looking to have a c-section."

Meg eyed the bit of stainless steel apathetically. "A razor blade? Isn't that a bit cliché?"

By now the other girl had brandished her own weapon, a large wrench, which she was tapping impatiently against her palm. "Don't forget it's two against one, metal against wood." She grinned like a hyena. "And of course you are, shall we say, _incapacitated_."

A wicked little chortle erupted from Meg's throat. "If you think being pregnant makes me _less_ dangerous, you've never seen a nature special before. See, you just threatened the cub and now you've gotta deal with the mama bear."

Before either of the younger girls could react, her splintered sword sliced low through the air, smashing into the closer one's shin. The razor blade clattered to the floor as the girl dropped it in favor of cradling her injured leg.

While #1 hobbled on one foot, #2 swung her makeshift bludgeon in a downward arc towards Meg's head. The older girl had quicker reflexes, though, and stopped the wrench with her sword. Neither girl pulled back and it became a battle of arm strength as their weapons pushed against each other.

Her opponent's arms buckled and Meg knew this fight was in the bag.

Then she heard it, the creak of bending wood followed by the crackling split as her old sword, finally at its limit, snapped in two.

Suddenly disarmed and vulnerable, Meg had to think fast in order to protect herself and her baby. The wrench flew at her again and she instinctively threw her arm out to block it. Metal struck bone with a sickening crunch and Meg's wrist exploded with pain.

"Dammit!" she hissed through her teeth. Her body sank into a protective crouch and she hugged her broken arm over her belly. She was about to sacrifice the other against a third blow when something white streaked behind the attacker and flung her to the ground with considerable force.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" Rui roared at the (literally) floored girl and her companion, who was still rubbing her bruised ankle. He positioned himself like a wall between them and Meg.

"Habashira!" the girl gasped, her overly painted eyes pleading for mercy. "Tsuyumine attacked us! We were only defending ourselves!"

"Bullshit!" he barked, flicking spittle onto her ugly face. Then he turned around, stooped low, and scooped Meg up in his long arms.

She didn't say a word. She didn't have any for such a situation. Never had she envisioned losing in a fight, so she was already in a state of shock when Rui picked her up. It was as if she'd been transported into an evening drama with a juvenile delinquent theme.

As many student as could fit had squeezed into the little side hallway and more spilled out into the main corridor, an audience Meg hadn't even noticed until now.

Rui addressed the spectators in the same commanding voice he used when motivating the football team. "Burn this into your brains, you pathetic little shits, and spread the word to anyone not here! NOBODY will threaten Tsuyumine Meg or lay so much as a finger on her! If ANY of you, male or female, gives her trouble again I will carve my name into your guts! Got it? That's Habashira Rui's kid in there, so show some FUCKING respect!"

The crowd, fallen silent, parted and made a path for Rui to pass through, like peasants before their king.

With her burst of adrenaline now wearing off, Meg was wide-awake to the fiery pain throbbing up her right arm. Fear of jostling the injury was enough to prevent her kicking and thrashing in protest of being carried like an invalid.

Once they were outside the school walls, Rui stopped, coincidentally at the same spot where they had talked privately on Valentine's Day. "Are your legs hurt?" he asked.

"Just my wrist," she answered. "You can set me down now."

Very carefully, he set her on her feet. "Let me see," he said, calmly reaching for her arm. Holding the limb as if it were made of glass, he put a small amount of pressure on it and Meg winced. "That's definitely broken," he sighed. "I'll need to take you to a doctor. You sure you're not hurt anywhere else? You didn't get hit in the stomach or anything, right?"

"Don't worry," she said. "The baby is fine."

She watched as he let out a deep breath and closed his eyes in relief. Less than a second later, however, they shot back open furiously. "What the hell were you thinking, Meg?" he yelled. "Taking on those two bitches by yourself?"

An offended scowl twisted on her lips. "If my sword hadn't broken I would have won," she stated defensively. "It was just a stroke of bad luck. You know that I am perfectly capable of defending myself."

"You shouldn't _have_ to defend yourself!" he growled. "What kind of miserable fucks do we have at this school that would attack a pregnant girl? Unforgivable! And don't even try to give me a speech about how you don't need or want protection! When I think about what could have happened if I hadn't gotten there in time…"

The level of concern she'd been secretly hoping to see from him was nowhere near this extreme. "I'm fine, Ru," she told him, in an attempt to cool his wrath.

But he just continued to grow more agitated. "You're not! You have a broken wrist! And it could have been worse! I wanted to KILL those skanks! It took all of my will to hold back! Errr! It just pisses me off so much to think of anyone hurting you!"

"You were never this protective of me before," Meg said curiously.

When Rui replied, it was, refreshingly, not with more yelling. "Until today I couldn't imagine anyone in this school would actually try to hurt you," he said soberly. "But I'm not going to let that happen again. You're going to be safe at Zokugaku if I have to personally threaten every single student."

"Ru!" she stammered, but he interrupted her.

"I don't give a shit about your pride as a warrior or a woman. So you're just gonna have to deal with having a man protect you. Now let's go get that wrist looked at."

Looking up at his face, ghost pale with worry for her, Meg decided that a tiny bit of womanly pride was a sacrifice she was willing to make. She wouldn't be insulted by his bodyguarding. After all, she couldn't afford another stroke of bad luck.

Then she said something that, before this moment, she would never have considered saying. "Thank you, Rui, for rescuing me in there. And for what you said. It makes me kind of… happy… that you care about me."

He responded to her reluctant gratitude with a hand on the back of her neck, tilting her head up and then lowering his for a long, soft kiss, the kind where both pairs of eyes gently close.

To be continued…


	8. Home

Free Talk- I am so happy that this story has found an audience and that there are other people who like this pairing. Thank you so much for the support and comments. Once again I have used the email device to make the passage of time between chapters more smooth. Things are about to start happening a lot quicker though. I was not particularly happy with the title of this fanfiction when I first posted it, but now I think it actually fits. It has nothing to do with the song, but with Meg's bittersweet personality. Anyways, I hope people like the new chapter. Please tell me what you think!

**Bittersweet Symphony**  
By Miss Angel Maxwell

* * *

Chapter 8: Home

* * *

**To:** "Anezaki Mamori"

**From: **"Tsuyumine Meg"

**Subject:** Re: Get Well Soon

Anezaki (I know you said I could call you by your first name, but I'm still not sure…)

It's such a relief to finally be on summer vacation. The _real_ relief won't start until tomorrow, though, when I finally get this stupid cast off. I was supposed to get it off two weeks ago, but the idiot doctor thought it needed to heal (and that I needed to suffer) a little bit longer. It's itchy as hell and it gets in the way of doing a lot of things. Even at work I've been delegated to the tedious job of putting shit away until my right arm is up and running. I _hate_ housekeeping.

I heard the news about Deimon coming second in the Tokyo Spring Tournament. Not bad, considering they lost three of their strongest players. That Jyuumonji must be a decent QB, even if it's nowhere near as talented as your demented lover boy. I'm glad I'm not a gambler, 'cause I'd never have put my money on Bando. WTF?

Of course, it doesn't really matter to me anymore. My high school football days are over (unless the belly dweller is a boy, in which case they're only over for about 15 years).

Besides getting the cast taken off, there really isn't much new to report. Well, there is one thing, but it isn't exactly new, just something I forgot to mention last month. I told you all about the fight, and getting my wrist broken, and Rui carrying me out of the school in the most mortifying way. But I didn't tell you about the kiss…

After giving his macho speech about protecting me whether or not I want it or think I need it, he sort of kissed me. Well… actually, it wasn't "sort of." It was definitely a kiss and it was a good kiss. But that's all I'm going to say on the matter and if you ask me about it I won't answer you. I'm really not into talking about girly shit. Even with you.

Tsuyumine Meg

(email sent 9:54pm 7/15)

* * *

"Grrrah!" With a loud grunt, Meg flung off the quilt that covered her sweat-dampened body. She hooked a finger into the collar of the t-shirt she was wearing (one of Rui's), and flapped it open and closed to generate a cool breeze against her chest. "Could it get any fucking hotter?"

With his insulation ripped away, the boy next to her was left shivering in his gym pants and tank top. "I think it's just you," he muttered as one long arm groped for the edge of the blanket to pull it back over him. "You've got the AC blasting in here 'round the clock, woman. I have to huddle against your body heat every night just to ward off hypothermia."

He had been sleeping a lot closer to her since the night after that kiss and Meg suspected it had little to do with the climate of the apartment. There was no longer a distinction between his side and her side. They both slept in the middle of the bed now, facing each other, sometimes with one of his arms draped over her waist.

Still, it was just innocent sleep, and though their configuration under the covers had changed, neither of them spoke about the event that triggered it. But Meg thought about it, more often then she would ever care to admit.

The kiss wasn't her first. That honor belonged to a boy who kissed her in the third grade on a dare and earned himself a knee in the groin. It wasn't even her first time kissing Rui, if she included the sloppy, lust-driven lip-locks that had accompanied their desperate mating. But the kiss outside the school was the one she wanted to relive over and over.

_Okay, so maybe I do have some feelings for the guy_, she reasoned. _But as far as crushes go, I could have picked a worse object than the father of my child._

"Hey, you okay, woman?" Rui asked, poking his face out from the snug cocoon of bedding he'd wrapped himself in. "You were spacing out there for a minute."

"I was just… trying to remember what I dreamed about last night," she made up quickly. Luckily, he was too dense to ever figure out she'd been thinking about kissing him.

"You sure?" He scrutinized her with narrowed eyes. "Go eat something. You look flushed and I sure as hell am not getting out of bed if you faint. No way I'm freezing my ass just 'cause you neglected you health."

She rolled her eyes and threw back her head. "Fine, fine. I'll eat," she sighed. "I have to get up anyways. Today I finally get to have this abomination sawed off." She waved her cast in the air.

"I agree that your arm is an abomination, but there's no reason to get is sawed off," Rui quipped.

"The cast, stupid, not the arm." She shook her head sadly. "If the toughs at school knew how terrible your jokes were, I wonder if they'd still respect you." Affection flooded her chest as she teased him.

_Yep, this is the guy I like…_

Surrogate brother and all-purpose chef, Tokage had breakfast waiting for her in the kitchen. "I hope you don't mind salty miso," he said. "I'm used to making it that way because it's how Rui likes it."

"Salty is good," she said, taking a seat at the table. "I usually like what Rui likes." After that line, she was sure she saw a little smirk on Tokage's face, but chose to ignore it.

The first few minutes of breakfast played out peacefully until the younger Habashira staggered out from his bedroom, bundled up in a thick sweatshirt and hoisting a huge pile of laundry in his arms. "Woman, if you're going to wear my clothes every day, you could at least do a load now and then."

"Laundry's not really my thing," she said dismissively, giving more attention to her soup than to him. "You're the neat freak. Isn't doing chores how you get your rocks off?"

Rui growled out his annoyance. "You know, ever since you moved in here there have been at least four times as many messes to clean up. I can't even keep up with all of it. You're the biggest slob I've ever met."

"Hey!" she protested. "If it's really been since I moved in, why'd you wait 'til now to start riding my ass about it?"

"I thought you'd grow out of it," he answered, a tinge of condescension in his voice. "But based on this accumulation from my floor," he nodded to indicate his armful, "that's not happening. Look, Tokage cooks, I clean… You have to start contributing something."

"What are you talking about?" his brother asked, planting a bear-sized paw on Meg's shoulder. "Little Mama contributes to this home. She provides the warmth."

"It's fifty-eight degrees in here," Rui said flatly.

"Emotional warmth," Tokage specified, tousling her hair. "She's like the Sun in our little universe."

"If you mean big, round, and gaseous… Ow!"

Meg cut off his rude comment with a well-aimed spoon. Annoyance oozed into the space where she'd felt affection less than fifteen minutes earlier.

_This__ is the guy I like? What the fuck is wrong with me?_

Having dumped his mountain of clothes in the adjacent laundry room (which was really just a closet), Rui sat down in the seat furthest away from her at the table. He rubbed the spot where her spoon hit his forehead and frowned. "I wasn't trying to lecture you, alright?" he grumbled. "I just thought that since you're going to squeeze out a kid soon, you'd want to start acting a bit more responsible."

Even his explanation that it wasn't a lecture sounded like a lecture. What did he know about being responsible, anyways? Sure, he kept this apartment spic and span (which she still found mind-boggling), but he also picked fights, neglected traffic laws, and held a flagrant disregard for any kind of authority. And he was going to be a parent too… she hoped.

"I'm getting dressed," she said, trying to focus on something less innervating. "Just one more hour until cast-off time. It'll be great to be able to ride on the back of the bike again and not have to hoof it everywhere in this heat."

"Um…" Rui stared skeptically at her belly, now approaching seven months gestation and nearly the size of a beach ball. "No offense, but I don't see it happening. You're fucking huge, woman."

Meg heaved herself up out of her chair, sighing because she actually saw his point. "I can't believe I'm going to get even bigger," she groaned. "By September _your_ clothes won't fit me anymore."

"Yeah, well all of my clothes were in that pile," he called after her as she retreated, slightly wobbly, to the bedroom. "So you'll have to wash something if you want to wear it. Do chores or go naked! Those are the only choices you've got!"

A few minutes later, she emerged wearing a shirt that was, remarkably, very loose around her body; a green and blue checked jersey emblazoned with the number 42 on both sides and both sleeves. "I found something clean," she chirped. "Now I won't have to go naked."

Rui glared. "That's a priceless piece of sports memorabilia! You can't wear that!"

She flashed her I-want-something pout that she only used on him. "But it fits. And I think the baby likes being in a football jersey. It's moving around all excitedly."

"Really?" he asked, eyebrows raised, an optimistic smile trying to twitch its way onto his stiff lips. Meg knew she had won her case.

Rui walked with her to the doctor's office, never straying more than a meter from her in any direction. "You're hovering again," she said in a sing-song voice.

"No, I'm not," he said, slowing his pace to put more distance between them. "Is this better?"

If she were just a little less proud she could have answered honestly and told him that she actually liked having him close. Instead she kept her eyes forward and chimed, "That's a good boy."

When Rui caught up with her, waiting for him in front of the doctor's office, Meg was suddenly struck by how miserable he looked. His brows were crushed over his eyes and his shoulders jutted stiffly in front of him. The frown on his face was sullen but resolute, like a hitman ordered to off his best friend.

"I have something I need to take care of," he said before she even had a chance to ask what was wrong. "So I can't stick with you for this. Watch your back, okay? And don't go breaking any more bones." He set one hand on her head and pressed his chin to her hair, not quite a hug. "If I'm not already there, call me when you're home safe."

"Okay," she said softly, too consumed by his shocking change of mood to muster a stronger response. "Goodbye, I guess." He pushed the door open for her and she stole one last look at his grim expression as she passed through.

Meg exited the office through the same door a half-hour later, smiling and rotating her liberated wrist just because she could now. The mystery of Rui's gloominess had not been forgotten, but she decided that since it wasn't something he felt he needed to share with her, it shouldn't ruin her joy at having her cast off.

Her fingers curled around the hilt of an invisible sword, which she sliced through the humid air as she walked towards home. She missed her real sword that Ru had given her in exchange for her giving him American football. At least it died a noble death, defending her from vermin.

"Meg?" A voice from behind interrupted her pantomime and she twirled around to a familiar face with eyes remarkably like her own.

"Mom?" she gasped.

Her mother looked nervous, almost shy, shifting her weight from one leg to the other as her fingers fussed with the strap of her designer bag. "You look… enormous," she commented, unable to politely lie.

"Uh, thanks Mom. You look good, too," Meg replied just as awkwardly. She forced a smile and displayed her right arm. "I, uh, got my cast off today."

"Cast?" Mom asked in alarm.

Meg crumpled at the realization that her mom had no idea about her injury. "I kinda broke my wrist in a fi… in a fall, an accidental fall. It's really no big deal." Her mother never knew about her frequent schoolyard fights before and there was no need to fill her in now.

"Oh Meg," her mother sighed disapprovingly. "When are you going to start taking better care of yourself? And look at what you're wearing. You look like a derelict."

No response came from Meg, just a protracted silence as her fingers smoothed the white 42 over her baby bump.

"Do you think we could go somewhere and talk?" There was a humble hopefulness in Mom's voice that subtly hinted at a reconciliation attempt. "It's too early for lunch, but there is a nice bakery around here. I could treat you to some cake."

Meg's eyes narrowed suspiciously on her parent's face, as if that would illuminate whatever ulterior motive the woman was trying to hide. Tsuyumine Tsuyako was a petty and self-serving woman who didn't commit kind deeds randomly.

As fiercely as she burned to deliver a very deserved "fuck off" to her mother, Meg couldn't even bring herself to deny the offer of cake. A perfectly timed kick from the tiny creature inside her saw to that.

"Alright, I'll go," she said reluctantly, giving her mother the same benefit of doubt she'd hope for from her own child.

Meg chose a small table in the rear of the café to host their conversation and quickly took the chair that put her back towards the other patrons. There was no way she was going to let Mom corner her. The barista delivered two strawberry shortcakes on dainty white china and still neither woman had yet uttered a word.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Meg finally asked, plucking the berry off the mound of whipped cream on her cake and popping it into her mouth as soon as question was out.

"I'd skip the cream if I were you, dear," her mother sniffed. "It's pure fat. Just because you're pregnant doesn't mean you have to be a cow."

With a defiant scowl, Meg scooped the entire pile of white topping with her fork, crammed it into her maw and swallowed. "Get to whatever it is you brought me here for!" she demanded. A few of the closest customers turned their eyes to the commotion.

Mom shook her head. "You were always such an impulsive child. A bright child, but brash and sorely lacking in judgment. I should have known this would happen when you chose to go to that awful trash-hole of a school."

"Alright, I think I've heard enough," Meg said stiffly, pushing both hands down on the table to leverage her girth out of her chair. "I have better things to do than sit here listen to your 'Smart Girls, Bad Choices' lecture. Especially since you made the same bad choices when you were my age."

"Meg, wait!" her mother pleaded.

She stopped, grudgingly, and looked down at those eyes full of feigned compassion. "What?" she asked impatiently.

"I want you to come home, Meg."

That got Meg to sit back down. "Mom, you say that as if I ran away. You kicked me out, remember?" She made a frustrated grunt. "And what makes you think I'd even want to move back in with you?"

"Let's be realistic here," Mom said disparagingly. "You've had your fun playing house with that juvenile delinquent, but what are you going to do once your child is born? You don't cook. You don't clean. You're too irresponsible to be a mother."

That seemed to be a popular opinion today.

"I'm going to be a mother whether I'm living in your house or Rui's," Meg told her. "But at least the latter is free from your toxic influence."

She waited eagerly for her mom's snappish response, but the woman just calmly unzipped her expensive purse and began digging through its contents.

"Please consider it," Mom urged, pulling out the glossy pamphlet she'd been hunting for and sliding it across the table.

Meg's lips twisted down in a mix of disgust and hurt as soon as she read the cover. "An adoption service? You want me to give away my baby?"

"It's what would be best for everyone involved," Mom insisted. "The child would have a loving home with mature, responsible parents. You could go to college and have a career, and not be forever tied to some miserable little punk that couldn't even be bothered to wear a rubber. And he'd be better off, too! Do you really think your biker boy wants to be saddled with a baby and a nuisance like you who can't even do housework?"

A nauseating slurry of emotions churned thickly in Meg's stomach, threatening to spill out in physical form. Her quivering jaw opened, but what came out wasn't vomit or screaming. "Would you be better off if you'd given me up for adoption?" Her voice was quiet, earnest, razor sharp.

Her mother's scarlet lips slid apart and were moistened by the tip of her tongue, but they formed no sound. Meg had her answer.

"That's what I thought," she said, her lower eyelids burning from the effort it took to suppress tears. With one strong heave, she stood up. "I'm going home," she declared. Then she turned her back to the woman who'd birthed her, and walked away.

Somewhere between the café and Rui's apartment the dammed tears were loosed. By the time she pushed open the door to 'home,' they were dribbling from her chin and staining the front of his jersey with sooty mascara.

Rui wasn't back yet and Tokage had gone out. The apartment was exactly as it was when she left. The dishes from breakfast and the colossal heap of laundry were still waiting to be washed. This was a state of disorder that she was perfectly comfortable with, but her obsessive roommate most definitely was not.

_Ru must be going crazy thinking about this mess. Maybe that's why he looked so unhappy when I left him._

She immediately recalled the agonized look on his face and her mother's words razed her like barbed wire. _"Do you really think your biker boy wants to be saddled with a baby and a nuisance like you who can't even do housework?"_

Snorting back her tears, Meg went to the laundry closet, grabbed an armful of clothes, and hurled it into the washing machine.

…

"What the fuck is going on?" Rui's voice cut through between the pulsing shrieks of the smoke detector.

"I can't make it stop!" Meg shouted. She didn't even realize he'd come home until now, but was instantly grateful when he reached a long arm to deactivate the alarm.

"Why is the smoke alarm going off, woman?" he grunted. Then he sniffed the air loudly and his eyes followed the scent to a tray of what looked like charcoal briquettes. He turned towards Meg, raising a bewildered eyebrow.

"They're cookies!" she stammered defensively. "I made them for you, dummy!"

He looked again at the charred cookies and then back at her. "I dunno what the hell those are, but they're definitely not cookies. Why are you cooking, anyways? Have you gone nutty?"

Meg didn't have a chance to explain herself as the dryer buzzer started droning as soon as he'd finished his question and she rushed to unload it. When she opened the hatch, she was horrified. "Fuck!" she growled, holding up a t-shirt so small it wouldn't even fit that tiny Deimon cheerleader. She tossed it and grabbed another one. Just as small. So was the next, and the next after that.

Rui grimaced. "How much of my wardrobe did you ruin?"

"About half, okay?" she yelled in frustration. "The rest is in the washing machine."

"Please let me finish it," he said, more of a demand than a request. He opened the washer and peered inside. "Ah shit!" he groaned. "You put something red in with the whites, idiot! Everything is pink! Fuck, even my school pants!"

"No way!" she howled. "I made sure to separate the white stuff from the colored stuff!"

"Oh really?" Rui asked, pulling a pair of bright red panties from the machine and dangling it from one finger.

With a guttural snarl, Meg tugged at her bleached blonde hair. "Well I didn't mean to!" she bellowed. "Just like I didn't mean to burn the cookies! Or break two bowls!"

As he listened, Rui's face twisted into an expression far more disturbing than the one he had worn outside the doctor's office. "What the fuck has gotten into you? Is this a pregnancy thing or have you seriously lost your mind?"

"Errr! I was trying to do something nice, you jackass!" she screamed, flinging a doll-sized t-shirt in his face.

"BY DESTROYING MY CLOTHES AND NEARLY BURNING DOWN MY APARTMENT?"

Her jaw tightened like a bear trap and she pushed out a breath that hissed between her teeth. She could feel fire in the corners of her eyes as the crying she had managed to extinguish threatened to resume against her will. "I'm trying to show you I'm not a burden," she muttered without loosening her bite.

Rui furrowed his brows in confusion as he scrutinized her face, moving his in closer. "Meg, have you been crying?"

"No," she lied, turning her head with a sniff.

Warm fingers gripped her chin and guided it forward so she and Rui were eye-to-eye. "What happened?" he asked directly.

"Mom," she replied. "I ran into my mom on the street on my way home. She wants me to move back home." His green eyes widened slightly and she continued. "But she wants me to put the baby up for adoption."

Rui's head jerked back. "What? How could she say that? You told her to go fuck herself, right?"

"I told her no, of course," Meg explained. "But I didn't want you thinking I made the wrong choice. That I should have gone back with her. That's why I was trying to show you that I'm a productive member of this home."

"Oh," was all he said. As he stared at her, the edges of his mouth curled up into a smile, which quickly turned into laughter. "I guess we've learned the best thing you can do for this home is _not_ trying to help." She frowned and he pulled her against his chest. "I'm not making fun of you, Meg. I'm happy you stood up to that bitch."

"You are?" she mumbled into his shirt.

"Of course," he answered. "I mean, who knows what kind of weirdoes our baby could wind up being raised by if you put it up for adoption? Maybe even a family that doesn't like American football."

Meg looked up. "So you don't think I'm a nuisance?"

"No," he sighed. "You _are_ a nuisance. But…" The words got caught somewhere inside him. With her hands pressed to his chest, Meg could feel his heart starting to beat harder. "If you left…" he continued clumsily. "Tokage would… he'd just miss you too much…"

"Right," she breathed. "I wouldn't want… _Togake_ to be lonely…" It was becoming impossible for her to concentrate on anything other than the heat of his body against hers and the rise and fall of his ribs with each breath. She slid her hands up into his hair and pulled his mouth against hers.

Delightedly, she found that kissing Rui was even better when she was the one who initiated it, which made her wonder about something else. She reluctantly separated her lips from his and, lacing her fingers with his, lead him to their bedroom.

More hot, wet kisses ensued as she backed him towards the bed and he lay down submissively on it. On hands and knees she straddled his body, only breaking the connection of their mouths when she tugged his shirt up and off.

He reciprocated by reaching for the hem of his jersey. "It looks fucking hot on you but it's gotta go."

They took turns removing an article of the other's clothing and then covering the revealed flesh with little nips and kisses. Nothing Meg had ever experienced aroused her as much as kissing all the way up the length of those gorgeous, perfect arms did.

Once they were both naked, he skimmed his hands up the outside of her legs to gently cup her hips and asked a single, breathless question. "Ready?"

She nodded and lowered herself onto his lap, sheathing him in her moist heat. Then she moved, grinded against him. And he moved too, lifting his hips in perfect rhythm with hers as his hands moved to her waist, thumbs gently caressing the sides of her round stomach.

This was utterly and wonderfully different from what took place in the locker room and the three bed-sessions that followed, and the reason had nothing to do with who initiated it. She looked at him and felt her heart ache with emotion, which made the physical sensations ten times stronger. He filled not just her body, but her soul.

It wasn't just a crush. She loved this man more than anything in the world. This stubborn, argumentative, ridiculous man. She loved every bit of him, even the parts she hated.

He gave her two powerful orgasms before he ejaculated and went limp beneath her.

Sated, she snuggled into the crook of his arm and rested her cheek to his chest. One hand she held over his heart. "Well," she said between still heavy breaths. "We didn't use protection. Aren't you worried you may have knocked me up?"

Rui responded with a hearty laugh. Then he kissed her lips and closed his eyes for a blissful afternoon nap.

Meg waited until she was sure he was asleep before whispering to his face, "I love you, Habashira Rui." And soon she too succumbed to slumber.

When she woke up, the sun was low in the sky and poured orange light in through the window. It was evening already. Next to her in bed was an indentation on the sheets and pillow, but no Rui. A sick feeling of déjà vu washed over her.

She got up and found a (now) pink undershirt laid out on the dresser for her. Once dressed in the color she so disdained, she left the bedroom, calling his name as she made her way to the kitchen. "Ru? Ru, you home?"

No response. But there was a note on the kitchen table.

_"Meg,_

_Me and Bro went to play ball. He made you something to eat if you can't wait for dinner. Stay out of trouble, and for the love of god, DO NOT ATTEMPT HOUSEWORK! See you soon, _

_Rui"_

It was so uncharacteristically considerate of him to leave a note for her. She grinned and opened the fridge to see what Tokage had made for her. Inside, a plastic _Lilo & Stitch_ bento box was waiting and, despite it being a snack more suited to a second grader than an adult, she pulled the lid off eagerly. On top of the rice and omelet and other goodies was a black sheet of nori cut into the shape of a chameleon.

As she was about to take the first bite, the doorbell rang and she frowned. She wanted to ignore it but it rang again, impatiently. "I'm coming! I'm coming!" she grumbled, setting down her bento and stomping to the door.

Outside she could hear high heels tapping. Her stomach knotted. Mom, the person she least wanted to see, had come after her. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she opened the door.

"Look Mom," she said firmly. "I already told you that I'm not interested in going back to your house so please just go away."

"How bold of you to call me 'Mom,'" a voice that wasn't her mother's hissed. "After all, you haven't coerced my son into marrying you yet."

To be continued…


	9. Gecko

Free Talk- Okay, this was undoubtedly the most difficult chapter of this story to write and I am still very anxious and insecure about how it turned out. It's supposed to be kind of... intense. So I hope I pulled it off without it being too cheesy. Thank you for the support and comments. Please tell me what you think of this chapter.

**Bittersweet Symphony**  
By Miss Angel Maxwell

* * *

Chapter 9: Gecko

* * *

Petite stature and slight build did nothing to make Rui's mother less menacing. She was all straight lines and sharp angles in her hound's-tooth jacket and pencil skirt. Waves of crow-black hair framed a face that seemed too tight for her skull, like she'd had too much plastic surgery. Her thin, reptilian lips were stretched back over glistening white teeth in a cruel grin.

"Mrs. Habashira," Meg uttered, swallowing hard afterward.

The woman's bulging eyes narrowed down to slivers. "You must be my son's whore," she hissed. "Please invite me in."

Despite the cursory inclusion of the word please, Meg could tell that this wasn't a request. It was a demand. "What do you want?" she asked, making no effort to disguise the loathing in her voice.

Habashira Yamori's tongue flickered briefly at the corner of her mouth. Unlike Rui, her lizard-like features were in no way endearing. "I've come to see with my own eyes the woman who's carrying my son's bastard."

"You're not welcome here," Meg growled. She flung the door as hard as she could but the woman caught it with one hand.

"I'm afraid I must have misspoken," she said in her sinister tone. "It is of utmost importance that I talk to you. And I _will not_ be refused."

Using all of her weight, Meg threw her shoulder against the door to force it closed. But Yamori proved to be remarkably strong, pushing back with just one arm and wrenching open a space wide enough to slip in uninvited. Audaciously, she didn't even remove her pointy-toed snakeskin pumps at the entranceway.

"So this is the place both my sons ran away to," she said snidely, eyeing the pile of unfolded pink laundry that was spilling from the closet. Her gaze returned to Meg. "I'd ask you to make tea, but the way you keep house is telling me you don't have a clue how."

"Rui is the one who cleans," Meg said pointedly. "He just didn't get around to it today. He was… distracted."

"Still a sissy at heart," Yamori sneered. Her tall, thin heels clicked on the hardwood as she brushed past Meg and into the kitchen.

Meg followed, hands coiled into tight fists at her sides. "Just say what you want to say and get out of my home," she demanded.

The intruder twisted around, her evil smile still in place. "_Your_ home? The name on the lease and the one who pays the rent is Habashira Tokage, _my_ first son. And he never would have been able to do so without a generous loan from his dear mother for the initial deposit. So you see, I have a greater claim on this apartment than you do."

"I offered to pay a portion of the rent," Meg said, glaring as the woman went about filling a kettle with water from the sink and setting it on the stove. "So did Rui, but Tokage said… What the…? Are you making tea?"

Yamori turned the knob to light the burner and took a seat at the kitchen table. "A discussion without tea wouldn't be civil."

"What would you know about civility?" Meg asked bitterly. "You hit your own child so hard it left bruises."

The grin on the woman's face closed into tense glower. "You will not question my parenting methods, girl," she ordered. "Now sit down so that we may discuss my Rui."

Meg felt like she could have breathed smoke, her hatred blazed so hotly. _Her_ Rui? Hadn't she severed that relationship when she and her husband chose to abuse their son? Meg wanted to grab that kettle off the stove and beat her with it until _she _was covered in bruises.

"There's nothing to discuss," she said, resisting the command to sit. "Rui doesn't want anything to do with you."

"How nice that you know my son so well you can speak on his behalf," Yamori said with thick sarcasm. "He must have told you, then, about how he came to see me this morning."

"This morning," Meg breathed, eyes widening as the day's mystery finally unraveled. "So that's why he looked so miserable." Forgetting to stay defiant, she pulled out a chair and sat. "Why did he go to you?" she asked crossly.

Yamori pursed her lips. "Money," she said. "After years of refusing to speak to me, my Rui came crawling back to borrow money. He told me he needed it because he was expecting a child."

"Didn't you already know?" Meg asked.

"I most certainly did not," Yamori answered huffily. "This was the first I'd heard about my son cohabitating with some girl he impregnated. So you can imagine my shock when arrived to find you already in your ninth month."

"Seventh."

"If you say so." There was an almost inaudible snicker in the way Yamori said it. "In any case," she went on more seriously. "I am now well aware of the situation. And I'm _not_ happy."

Having already been confronted by her own mother today, Meg felt bolstered in dealing with Rui's. "This really shouldn't concern you. Rui is going to be a good father without any help from you, financially or otherwise. You might think we're too young, but it doesn't matter. I'm keeping this baby and we're going to get by just fine."

Yamori's little slit nostrils flared. "Well," she said sharply. "No matter what your opinion is of me, I am still Rui's mother and his life _does_ concern me. I couldn't care less whether or not you keep the wretched thing, just as long as you remove yourself from my son's home and his life."

"What?" Meg's eyebrows crinkled. "It's not the fact that your son fathered a child while still in high school that bothers you? It's… _me_?"

"Really it's a combination of the two." Yamori explained. "If it were a well-bred girl from a wealthy and esteemed family who'd taken my son's seed I wouldn't mind. Nor would I mind if he were just fooling around with street trash like you."

Meg scowled. "Who're you calling street trash? And Rui's not exactly Mr. High Society. He's got a worse reputation than I do." She felt a tiny twinge of guilt for saying it, even though it wasn't meant as an insult.

The woman across the table smiled smugly. "I'm not surprised that you're so ignorant of the Habashira family, girl. Rui's great-grandfather founded Zokugaku High School and its sister University, and every member of the family since has gone to both schools."

"So?" Meg spat.

"_So_," Yamori continued. "It was always a means to toughen them up, surround them with filth like you so they would become ruthless businessmen, lawyers, and politicians. Not one ever took a mate from the ranks of those degenerates. Every Habashira for the past sixty years eventually chose a spouse from a suitably prestigious family."

"Well for your information, Rui and I have never even talked about getting married." It was the truth, but Meg couldn't leave it sounding like she agreed with the Habashira family's ridiculous marriage policy. "It doesn't matter, though," she confidently amended. "Rui can marry whoever he wants to."

"As long as he has me for a mother, it _does_ matter." Venom dripped from each word as it hissed from Yamori's snake-like mouth. "My son knows what's expected of him and would never take a disgusting delinquent girl as his wife. But for some reason he seems determined to keep you with him and raise your gutter-blooded offspring together. It is not an acceptable lifestyle for a Habashira. I can't…"

The sharp whistling of the tea kettle had begun so unobtrusively during the wicked speech that Meg didn't even notice it until it grew so loud it drowned out the words.

Yamori stood up and turned off the stove, looking slightly annoyed even though she was the one who'd insisted on tea. After preparing two cups, she set one in front of Meg and sat back in her chair.

"Isn't this more civilized?" she asked condescendingly. She took a quiet sip. "Now, as I was saying, I can't force Rui to marry an appropriate woman, but I do have certain resources at my disposal to eliminate any obstacles that might hinder him in making the right choice. Right now, that obstacle is you, my dear girl."

Hot tea scalded the back of Meg's throat as she choked on a mouthful. "Are you going to kill me?" she sputtered.

"Tch. Such a vulgar assumption," Yamori said, clucking her tongue. "In the name of civility, I try to reserve murder as a last resort. Of course, it would be easiest if you removed yourself willingly. What would be your price to stay away from my son?"

"Price?" Meg uttered, her face screwing up in horror. "You're trying to bribe me into leaving Rui?"

"Don't think of it as a bribe. Think of it as living expenses. I can offer enough for you and the little one to live comfortably." Yamori smiled evilly across the table. "The only condition being that you _live_ somewhere far away from my Rui."

Meg looked down at her belly then back up at Rui's mother and answered in a steely voice. "You could offer me one-hundred million yen a day and I'd still refuse. As long as he wants us in his life, we'll stay by his side."

Yamori raised a thinly drawn eyebrow. "Are you sure? This is the best deal you'll get from me and once a take it off the table it will no longer be an option." Meg just crossed her arms against her chest and the woman continued. "Very well. If positive motivation doesn't entice you, perhaps a different tactic will. You seem to care a lot about my son."

"He's the most important person in the world to me." Not sure where this was going or what this 'different tactic' might be, Meg kept her guard up. She took another noisy swig of tea and leaned forward aggressively. "I won't let you hurt him."

"Physical harm may be useful against a child, but I find adults respond better to more _sophisticated_ punishments." Whatever was going through Yamori's mind as she spoke seemed to be causing her intense delight. Her malicious grin was so wide every one of her teeth was showing. "You know, it's not just money the Habashira family has an excess of. We also hold great influence. With just a phone call, I can see to it that Rui is rejected by every university in Japan and never gets to play football on any organized team ever again."

"No way," Meg said with a skeptical snort. "Even you aren't _that_ evil." She stared down her enemy fiercely, trying with her eyes to will the woman into admitting her bluff. But Yamori's face remained icy and unyielding, and Meg felt her extremities numbing with shock. "You… You're really serious… Don't you even care how important playing football in university is to him?"

"The question that matters is, do you?" Yamori asked gleefully.

The numbness in Meg's fingers and toes was spreading up her limbs, paralyzing her. This woman, this horrible, abusive, hateful woman, was using her own son's dream as a bargaining chip. And she absolutely would follow through on the ultimatum. Meg knew she would.

Her brain was clouding. She couldn't seem to form words anymore.

Yamori chuckled at her speechlessness. "Ooh, I bet you wish you'd taken my original offer now," she said. "Now you have a big decision to make. Which will you choose? Being with Rui, or letting him go to university and play football? It's a tough one. Perhaps you should _sleep_ on it."

"Uh…" It was the only sound Meg could make. The kitchen seemed to be growing darker. This had to be a bad dream that she was about to wake up from.

_Come on, Meg! Wake up! Wake up! Wake the FUCK up!_

That's when blackness swallowed her whole.

…

Her eyes opened on a field of green and it took a minute for her to realize it was linens and that she was waking up in an unfamiliar bed. "Whut? Where am I?" she mumbled, propping herself up with arms still clumsy with sleep.

The room around her was strangely familiar, like she knew it intimately without ever having been inside before. There was a desk and chair, both too small for an adult, and a bookshelf filled with comics like _Dragonball_ and _Slam Dunk_. When she saw the plastic model of a Zephyr motorcycle on the desk, she knew why the room was so familiar.

It was Rui's from when he was little. But how the hell did she get here?

With a squeak, the bedroom door opened and Habashira Yamori stepped inside. "Ah, you're finally awake," she said. "I suppose you've figured out where you are?"

Meg sat fully upright, rotated her stiff neck and shoulders to loosen them, and rubbed her eyes before answering. "This is Rui's old bedroom, right? But… how? The last thing I remember…"

"I put a sedative in your tea," Yamori interrupted. "I anticipated that you might become belligerent so I took precautions." She rolled her eyes when Meg clutched her stomach with both hands. "Don't worry, the dose you ingested won't hurt the little parasite."

"That _parasite_ is your grandchild," Meg snarled.

"Only if I choose to acknowledge it," Yamori said. "Which I don't. Now, you're probably wondering what the purpose is in bringing you to the house Rui grew up in."

"Something evil, I'm sure." Meg turned her head, unwilling to look at this woman as she walked closer.

Yamori stopped right next to the bed. "You are here because I've had a change of heart," she said. "I've decided that it wouldn't be fair to force you to make such a crucial decision regarding my son's future."

Remembering how resolute Yamori had looked when presenting her with the cruel ultimatum, Meg knew better than to believe she'd rescind it. 'Had a change of heart' probably just meant she'd thought of a new way to exploit Rui.

"I've decided to let _him_ make the choice," Yamori said, as if she could hear Meg's suspicion and wanted to confirm it. "I'm going to let Rui decide which is more important to him, his future and football, or some girl he fucked."

"That's…!" Meg couldn't think of the words to describe this change of plans. Was it more brutal or less for the burden to be on him?

Another question throbbed sharply in her stomach. Was she a terrible person for wanting Rui to choose her?

While Meg was clutching her shirt over her heart in agonized silence, Yamori had pulled out a cell phone from her pocket and pressed the button for a preprogrammed number.

"Hey! That's _my_ phone!" Meg barked.

"The boy won't answer if he sees it's from my number," the woman said. Then she held up a hand in a request for quiet as she waited for an answer. "Why hello, Rui," she greeted. "This is your mother. How did I get Tsuyumine's phone? I've got her here with me at the family home."

Meg's heart beat louder and faster than she'd ever felt it before. This wasn't like all those scrapes she'd gotten into at Zokugaku, where speed and prowess could bring about victory. She was already beaten by an enemy she couldn't topple and every possible outcome was a heartbreaking loss.

She listened to Yamori's side of the phone conversation and derived the tiniest amount of hollow joy from the indications that Rui was tearing into her on the other end.

"Well of course she didn't come _willingly_. I put something in her drink. My, such disgusting language to use towards your own mother! I did this to help you get your priorities properly rearranged now that you're on the brink of adulthood. It's a very simple choice, son. Which is more important to you, football, or the girl? What? You want to talk to her?"

Yamori placed the cell phone into Meg's trembling hand and she lifted it to her ear.

"Meg? Meg, are you there?"

The sound of Rui's voice coming out of the phone made tears start to glide down her cheeks, but her voice didn't waver. "I'm here, Ru. Your mom isn't joking around. She drugged me and kidnapped me. She's going to enforce whatever decision you make."

"Meg, I… I don't know what I'm supposed to do…" Rui, for the first time that Meg could remember, sounded genuinely terrified.

"Rui…" The increasing effort it took to keep her voice from shaking caused her words to come out slowly. "If you choose me and sacrifice your future, you might resent me and your child for the rest of your life. So, please, don't make your choice based on guilt or pity. Choose what will make you most happy. I think you know which one."

"Why are you telling me this?" he asked in a choked voice.

"Because, Rui," she answered. "I love you." As soon as the words were out, Yamori plucked the phone from her hand and Meg collapsed on the bed, burying her silent sobs in the pillow.

"So that's the situation," Yamori said, unaffected. "It's a bit after nine in the evening now so the way it will work is this: If you choose the girl, simply come for her before midnight then kiss university and football goodbye. If you don't show up before midnight, it means you've made the other choice. I will let her go free and make sure that you never see her ever again. Understand? Alright then. See you later… or not."

Yamori turned off the phone and sat down on the bed. Meg could tell because she felt the mattress sink, but she didn't lift her face from the pillow. She couldn't look at that woman.

"Now you've got a bit of a wait ahead of you," Yamori said with mock sympathy. "We can't have you wandering about so I'm just going to lock the door from the outside on my way out. You'll hear him _if _he shows up."

The door clapped shut and the lock clicked but still Meg didn't move.

_Why is this happening? Why the FUCK is this happening? How can this woman hate me so much? How can she hate her own son so much?_

Questions kept piling in her brain, but she had no answers, no explanations. She'd woken that morning expecting nothing more than to get her cast off and spend the remaining hours just hanging out with Rui.

Cake with Mom, an adoption pamphlet, attempted chores, making love with Rui, being threatened, sedated, and abducted by his mother. None of those things had been on her agenda, and all but one were things she never wanted to experience again.

She stayed in the same prone position, imagining she was trapped in a nightmare, until she heard a grandfather clock somewhere in the house let out ten loud, low peals. There were still two hours (potentially) for her to be tortured and she had to find a better way to pass the time.

So she levered herself up from the bed, went over to the bookshelf, and picked out volume one of _Dragonball_. Then she sat down on the floor to read it. Inside the front cover the words 'property of Habashira Rui, NOT Tokage!!!' were written messily in blue marker. It was so cute Meg couldn't help smiling.

God, she loved him so damn much. Why hadn't she realized it sooner? Maybe things would have turned out differently.

Ah, but pondering 'what ifs' was just junk thought.

Eleven peals came somewhere in the middle of volume two. She had read every word on every page but hadn't processed any of it. The later it got, the more overwhelming her anxiety grew, and the harder it got to concentrate on anything else.

_Dammit! Why do I keep hoping to hear him? Didn't I tell him not to? I'm so fucking selfish! What's wrong with me? Fuck! Come on! Hurry up, Rui! I don't care if I'm a selfish bitch anymore, just pick me! Come for me!_

Every muscle in her body was tensed with hope and shame and fear. The baby squirmed anxiously inside her. Then she heard it.

_Gong! Gong! Gong! Gong! Gong! Gong! Gong! Gong! Gong! Gong! Gong! Gong!_

The clock tolled twelve times. Midnight had come. Rui had made his choice.

Meg's heart, which had been pounding so hard all evening, seemed to stop completely. Of course, it had to be beating if she was still alive, but she couldn't feel it. She couldn't feel anything. Even the baby had ceased its fidgeting.

"Well then, it looks like my son has decided." Yamori had entered the bedroom without Meg even noticing and was now looming over her. "I suppose I won't have to sabotage his academic and athletic future after all. You should be glad, girl. That is, if you really meant it when you said you _love_ him."

"What are you going to do with me now?" Meg mumbled, staring forward through glassy eyes.

"Since it's late, I will be kind to you," Yamori said. "Tonight you may stay with a friend or family member and tomorrow we can begin the process of transferring you to another school."

"What?" Meg snapped.

"You didn't think I was going to let you keep going to Zokugaku, did you?" Yamori asked in a patronizing tone. "I don't trust you any further than I can throw you, which isn't very far to begin with owing to your immense girth."

"Do you really think you can keep us separated forever?" Meg asked.

Yamori grinned wickedly. "If I can't, I always have my _last resort_. Now, the time has come for you to leave my house. And don't forget, if you go back to my sons' apartment I will find out about it and swiftly punish both you and Rui."

Meg didn't get up, unable to make her legs work. She was only vaguely aware of the woman's cold, bony fingers yanking her up by the wrist, leading her out of Rui's bedroom and out of his life.

Yamori put Meg's cell phone back in her hand and scooted her out the door, without ceremony, without a single word.

Outside in the deep blue of night, the old neighborhood looked like an ominous forest out of a children's fairy tale. The streetlights only glowed dimly and black shapes lurched at her from every side. As she walked, with no destination in mind, a strong gust of wind reminded her that she was only wearing shorts and an undershirt. She didn't even have shoes.

_All my stuff is still at Rui's. I'm hungry, too. Wish I could have finished my bento. Where am I going to go? I only have one choice really… if Mom even lets me come back. I don't even know where I am right now. I can't be mad at Rui, though. He made the choice I told him to._

"Ow! Fuck!" She swore out loud and grabbed her foot as piercing pain shot through it. Then, unable to balance on one leg, put it back down on the same piece of glass and cut herself again. "Dammit!" She fell to the sidewalk, landing on her bottom, and started blubbering uncontrollably.

_Just what I need! Now on top of everything I need to get a tetanus shot!_

"What are you bawling about, Fucking Yankii?"

Meg lifted her dripping eyes and saw a pointed face grinning at her with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. "Oh, it's _you_." Even through her sniffling she managed to sound contemptuous. This was the guy who'd made Rui his slave after all.

"On the ground, barefoot and crying at midnight? Shouldn't you be out mugging someone with the Fucking Chameleon?" His tone wasn't a bit sympathetic, but it wasn't entirely mocking either.

"I don't know why I'm telling _you_ this," she groaned. "Rui's mother kidnapped me and dumped me back on the street when she was done with me. And I just stepped on a friggin' piece of glass. Twice!"

"Eh? Why would the Fucking Chameleon Mama kidnap you?" Hiruma snorted. "You can't be worth much in terms of a ransom. Hey wait a minute." He moved a little closer. "You're knocked up!" He cackled in amusement at the discovery. "Kekeke! So the Fucking Chameleon made it to your end zone!"

"I'd really appreciate it if you didn't make fun of me right now," Meg growled. "This hasn't been the best day."

Hiruma made an annoyed grunt. "Well you're not crying anymore so it can't be that bad."

Meg touched her cheek. She hadn't noticed that her irritation at Hiruma had deflected her tears. That didn't mean she wasn't still miserable. "Rui's mom used blackmail to make him never see me again."

"Big fucking deal," Hiruma said, crinkling his pointy nose.

"I want to be with him, you asshole!" she roared.

"Then be with him ya Fucking Yankii!" He looked like a shark when he yelled, all those intimidating triangular teeth showing. "If you can't get around some old hag's blackmail you deserve to sit on the sidewalk like dog shit!"

With a surge of renewed vigor, Meg scrambled to her feet and grabbed the damn devil boy by the shirt, shaking him roughly as she screamed in his face. "You think it's that easy you STUPID PRICK? This woman makes you look like a goddamn saint! If I go back to Rui, she'll punish _him_, not just me!"

"KEKEKE!" Again he was laughing demonically. "I got you on your feet, Fucking Yankii. You're making progress."

Meg was seething, hot anger steaming from her nostrils. How the hell could Anezaki put up with this jackass?

Hiruma just kept smiling wolfishly. "Alright, I'm calling the Fucking Manager to board you for the night. If I help you bring down Fucking Chameleon Mama, though, you'll owe me for life."

As fiercely as she itched to tell him that she didn't want his help, she couldn't do it. If any single entity could take on Habashira Yamori, it was Hiruma Youichi. Loath as she was to admit it, she needed him.

With spidery fingers he pulled the cell phone from her pocket and turned it on. "You might want to call your baby daddy first," he said, and immediately the phone in his hand started chiming loudly. He looked down at the name on the screen. "Speak of the Fucking Devil."

Meg snatched the phone away from Hiruma.

_Stupid Rui! Doesn't he know what kind of shit his mom will give him for calling me?_

She let it ring again and again, afraid to let her number show up on Rui's phone bill and earn him some ghastly punishment.

"PICK UP THE FUCKING PHONE!" Hiruma thundered.

"ALRIGHT!" she boomed back. She pushed the button to talk and pressed the phone to her ear. "Rui," she said softly.

"Meg." The voice on the other end was familiar, but it wasn't Rui.

"Tokage?" she uttered. "You're talking kind of funny. What… what's wrong?" There were weird noises in the background. "Where are you?"

"I'm at the emergency room," Tokage said shakily. "Rui was in a motorcycle accident on his way to get you. You… you have to come here as soon as you can. He's… It's not good, Meg."

To be continued…


	10. Habashira Rui

Free Talk- Thank you to everyone who has been reading, especially the kind people who have commented. Your support means so much to me. Now, time to pick up where I last left off. Please tell me what you think.

**Bittersweet Symphony**  
By Miss Angel Maxwell

* * *

Chapter 10: Habashira Rui

* * *

Meg's heart pumped ice water. The phone trembled in her hand. "Is Rui…? Is he…?" She couldn't even think the word, much less say it. Rui had to be alive. It was the only reality her brain could accept.

"I don't know," Tokage answered tensely. "I just got here and they won't tell me anything."

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Meg croaked.

She ended the call and turned to Hiruma with desperate eyes. "How quickly can you get me to the hospital?"

"You know this is going to cost you," he grumbled as he yanked the cell phone out of her fingers. "When you squeeze out that thing, I get to name it." He dialed a number and someone must have answered right away because almost immediately he was barking an order. "Hey Fucking Old Man, get your truck over here. You know where I am."

"How long will it be?" Meg asked anxiously. She no longer cared that she was barefoot and bleeding. She didn't even care that her child was probably going to have the word 'Fucking' in its legal name. All that mattered to her now was getting to Rui.

Hiruma waited two or three seconds before stretching back his lips in a jagged grin. "He's here." As he said it, two bright beams of yellow light spilled onto the deserted street, supplied by a large, mud-splattered white truck.

A handsome, square-jawed face with a wild fringe of brown hair leaned out the driver's side window and greeted them casually. "Yo. Hiruma. Zokugaku Manager."

"The Fucking Yankii needs a ride to the hospital," Hiruma informed.

Takekura leaned the other way and opened the passenger door. "Hop in."

Meg dashed around to the open door, cringing slightly each time her cut foot hit the pavement, and Hiruma prodded her into the truck with what felt suspiciously like the business end of a shotgun. Then he climbed in behind her and she was forced to sit squeezed between the two ex-Devilbats.

"It's a company vehicle," Takekura said as he shifted the truck into drive and revved the engine. "So try to hold it in until we get there."

It took a moment for her to figure out what he was talking about. "I'm not in labor. This kid still has two more months. It's Habashira. He was in a motorcycle accident. He might be dying." Her voice creaked with fear by the last sentence.

The streetlights outside seemed to blink as the truck passed under them, traveling at least fifteen kilometers over the speed limit. But the steering was smooth and the driver didn't slow down after learning his upholstery wasn't in imminent danger. "So how much is Hiruma charging?" he asked, eyes forward as he calmly maneuvered the roads at breakneck pace.

"Naming rights to her first born, for starters," Hiruma answered, adding his distinctively gleeful cackle. "Kekeke! I'll work out the full terms of payment later."

When Meg didn't react to his sadism, he ceased his laughter and the little space fell silent. She looked down and saw that her right side, from shoulder to knee, was pressed snuggly against sexy Takekura Gen. She hadn't even noticed, and now that she had, it didn't have any affect on her.

The baby kicked furiously, as if it could sense her anxiety, and she let her hands do what she swore they never would. _Don't worry,_ she thought as she petted the bump soothingly. _He's going to teach you to play American football someday._ The thoughts were directed at the fetus, but they were really meant to keep herself sane.

"This is the emergency room entrance," Takekura announced as the truck stopped, and probably just as a courtesy added, "I hope your boyfriend is okay."

"Thank you," Meg said, not bothering to correct him. Unwilling to wait for Hiruma to move out of the way, she scrambled over his legs and out the door. "Thank you both for the ride."

As she sprinted as quickly as any pregnant woman could to the ER entrance, she was sure she heard Hiruma shout, "If the Fucking Chameleon doesn't make it, I'll take ten percent off your debt!"

The receptionist inside the emergency room took one look at Meg and immediately asked, "Are you going into labor?"

"Not anytime soon," she answered. _Jeez, can't someone who works in a hospital tell the difference between seven and nine months pregnant?_ "I'm here for Habashira Rui. He was in an accident."

"Ah yes, the motorcycle guy," the receptionist said. Her voice was neither grave nor optimistic. "You must be the girlfriend. I'm afraid he's no longer with us."

Meg felt her heart rip in two. Her breath stopped.

_How can this woman say it so emotionlessly? Now she's examining her clipboard as if everything is alright? To her he's just another delinquent who got himself killed being reckless. She couldn't possibly understand… that if Rui's gone… nothing will ever be alright again._

After everything the universe had already put her through, to take Rui was beyond excruciating, beyond unbearable. And to deliver the news through this cruelly indifferent woman…

Meg's hands started moving involuntarily, fingers curling into talons that reached for the woman's neck. Just before her fingernails made contact with skin, the woman looked up from her clipboard and the hands snapped back.

"Oh, sorry to leave you hanging there," she said, still without grief, as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her thin nose. "It says on the chart that he was transferred to an operating room on the fourth floor."

A sharp breath of pure hope flooded Meg's lungs as the two halves of her heart knit back together. "Fourth floor?" she asked, and when the receptionist nodded, she took off towards the elevator.

"Wait!" the woman called after her. "Your foot! Don't you want to get that…?" The rest was cut off by the closing of the elevator door.

If she weren't so damn pregnant she would have taken the stairs. Meg hated elevators. Something about just standing in a little box, unable to see any progress towards her destination, made her edgy and the urgency of her current circumstances magnified that tenfold.

She tapped the pad of her bare foot impatiently as she watched the changing floor number. There was something warm and wet underfoot and when she looked down she saw foot-shaped red smears leading to the spot where she stood. That glass got her deeper than she realized.

The door opened into a waiting room on the fourth floor and Meg bolted straight into Tokage's waiting hug. "He's alive," she sighed into his shoulder. "Rui's alive."

"He's alive," Tokage repeated, with a little snort that betrayed the fact that he'd recently been crying. "They just took him into surgery a few minutes ago. He's stable, but he got smashed up pretty bad."

"I wish I could have gotten here in time to see him with my own eyes," Meg said as he released her from his brotherly bear hug. "Do you know how long it's going to take?"

Tokage's eyes closed beneath bushy brows and he shook his head slightly. "The surgeon said it would take at least a couple hours to repair the damage to his arms, but he couldn't say how many."

"His… arms?" The words fell from quivering lips. "Football… Will he be able to…?"

An optimistic smile spread on Tokage's great grizzly mug. "You should know better than anyone what kind of man Rui is. Any injury will just be a minor setback."

"Yeah," Meg said, her voice somewhere between a sigh and a chuckle. "I'll bet he's an even bigger baby about having to be in a cast than I was. However many weeks without being able to practice is going to drive him nuts. And he's going to drive _me_ nuts."

She sighed again, and slumped down into a chair. It was a few minutes past one in the morning according to the clock on the wall. Now that the adrenaline supply was tapering off, she could feel how tired her body was and the gash in her foot throbbed dully.

"Holy hell, Meg," Tokage remarked as he sank his bulky frame into a chair across from her. "You look awful. I'm so sorry about what that woman did to you."

"Heh," she replied with a wry smile. "It's not your fault your mother is a psychopath. There's nothing you could have done. Besides, Rui was her real victim. I'm just collateral damage."

"Collateral damage that can bleed is a victim," he said. "No matter how you look at it." Sometimes Tokage said thing that really demonstrated how there was more going on in his brain than his old-fashioned ruffian exterior suggested.

The wait ahead was going to be torturous. "That idiot," she groaned. "I told him not to come. If only he'd listened…" She said it, but guilt still chewed the lining of her stomach like acid.

_I told him not to choose me, but that isn't what I really wanted. Well, I got my wish. Isn't it great? Yamori will still probably have me expelled from Zokugaku. And who knows when Rui will be able to play football again…_

"You don't have to beat yourself up, you know." Tokage's gruff but kind voice cut through her self-loathing thoughts. "You can't help the way you feel, Meg. You wanted Rui to choose to be with you because that's what would make _you_ happy, but told him not to because it's what you thought would make _him_ happy. I can't think of a more selfless thing you could have done."

"You make me sound like such a martyr," she said dryly. But regret started to tinge her words as she continued. "I must have subconsciously revealed my true feelings to him when I talked to him on the phone. When I told him I didn't want him to resent me and the baby for costing him football."

Tokage's dark frill of hair shook as he loudly laughed. "I think you're overestimating Rui's ability to read between the lines. Can't you even consider the possibility that he cares more about you than football?"

The image of Rui, crying at Hiruma's feet and begging to know why the Devilbats all rallied behind their cruel captain but none of the Chameleons shared _his_ zeal, came back to Meg with photographic clarity. "Rui loves American football more than anything else in the world," she said.

"Maybe so," Tokage replied. "But I know he would come to _hate_ it if he only got to play by severing all ties to the one person in the world who truly understands him."

"Me?" She was baffled to hear herself described in such terms by the older brother Rui idolized.

"You, Meg." His voice and the way he smiled at her were unusually humble. "I was so happy that day when we met you because I knew my brother had found his match. The two of you were always on equal footing, without pity or surrender towards each other. You gave him more than just football. You got in his blood and riled him up. You gave him back his fight after Mom and Dad beat it out of him, and that's something that even I couldn't do for him."

"But it's not like I _did_ anything," she said. "I mean, at least not intentionally. I doubt I've had that big an impact on Rui's life."

"You have," Tokage told her. "And you didn't even need to do anything. Just being in his life, being you. Whether he is fully aware of it or not, you are the best thing that's ever happened to my brother. Yeah, playing university football would make him phenomenally happy. But not nearly as happy as teaching his kid how to play will."

Meg felt heat in her cheeks. These were things that Rui would never say directly (she couldn't even imagine it), but if his brother really believed he felt that way then she could let herself believe as well. She rested a hand on her belly. "So, you think he really wants the baby?"

"Are you kidding?" he boomed. "The fact that he asked the person he hates most for money speaks louder than any words." Meg shifted edgily in her seat at the mention of the woman responsible for this whole tragedy and Tokage must have noticed because he smiled at her and added, "Everything is going to be okay."

There was a moment or two of silence followed by the sound of footfalls as a doctor solemnly entered the waiting room. "Are you Habashira Rui's brother?" he asked.

Tokage stood up to greet him. "Yes, that's me. And this is Meg, Rui's… wife."

Even though she understood that the lie was just in case the hospital would only let family members in to see him, it was still embarrassing to hear.

"I'm Dr. Harada," the man said. "Your brother and husband's lead surgeon. His surgery has been completed and his condition remains stable so he's going to be moved into recovery."

"So soon?" Meg lifted herself from her chair and looked at the surgeon with interrogating eyes. "Was the damage not as serious as you'd thought?"

Dr. Harada's eyes closed. "You might want to sit back down."

"I'd prefer to stand," she asserted. Her heart, which had calmed, was growing agitated again. "What is wrong? Did something bad happen during surgery?"

"The injuries sustained by his arms turned out to be much more severe than we thought." The doctor bowed his head as he spoke, and though his wasn't grim, it was still very serious. "There was extensive nerve and tissue damage that could not be repaired for sensation or function. The best option for him was to undergo double trans-humeral amputation."

Another tide of cold shock rose in Meg's chest, but she was able to keep her legs steady. She'd chosen to stand and she wouldn't sit back down. "Both of his arms are… gone?"

"He never would have regained use of them," Dr. Harada explained, in a tone clearly meant to reassure. "And leaving them would have greatly increased the risk of infection. It won't be easy, but he will adapt to his new situation. He's very lucky to be alive."

"Can we see him?" Meg asked.

The doctor nodded. "He'll stay asleep for quite some time, but you may sit with him. Follow me."

She followed with small steps, trying to prepare herself mentally to see Rui without his amazing arms. Somehow she would have to keep herself from crying or showing any other signs he could interpret as pity. Now was a time she would have to be Zokugaku tough.

They stopped in front of a door, and when Dr. Harada pushed it open Meg could hear the sounds of whirring machines and slow breathing. A huge, slab-like hand on her shoulder reinforced her resolve to be strong as she entered.

Her efforts to ready herself were valiant but not quite enough. The obtrusive emptiness on either side of Rui in the hospital bed made him look so unnaturally small. All that remained of his once beautiful appendages were two short lengths of flesh and bone wrapped thickly with white gauze.

The rims of her eyelids prickled painfully and she rubbed them with her knuckles.

"Aw shit," Tokage uttered behind her. "I thought I could handle seeing him like this, but shit…" His voice squeaked.

It made Meg feel better to know she wasn't alone in getting emotional.

"I'll let you two be alone with him," said the doctor. "There's a call button next to the bed if you need me. Just be mindful of the equipment." Then he closed the door behind him as he exited.

Meg tiptoed cautiously closer and closer until she was right at his bedside. There was a long, deep slash under his left eye that was held closed with little strips of adhesive tape, but that was his only visible injury beside the arms (though most of him was covered by a blanket). It was almost as if the universe had caused his accident for the sole purpose of ruining his football career.

She touched his forehead very gently, dragged her fingertips through his limp black hair. "I wonder how long he'll stay out for."

"That IV must be feeding his vein a steady stream of painkillers," Tokage said. "So he could stay comfortably asleep for a long time."

"You're right." Meg walked to the visitor's chair and pulled it next to the bed. "I guess I should make myself comfortable."

Tokage sighed. "I feel like I have a responsibility to tell you to go home and get some sleep for yourself. But you're not going to take that advice, are you?"

"I'm going to be with him when he wakes up," she said, never taking her eyes off the up and down movement of Rui's sleeping chest. "I don't know how he's going to react to everything, but I'm going to be here to support him."

"Just don't forget to take care of yourself, Little Mama." Tokage patted her head. "When was the last time you had something to eat or drink?"

Her forehead scrunched as she did the subtraction in her head. "I had cake with my mom at about eleven this morning and lunch at noon. Oh, and sedative-laced tea in the late afternoon with your mom. I didn't notice it before, but I'm pretty damn hungry." There was a sharp kick of agreement inside her. "The baby is hungry, too."

"That's what I thought," he said. "I'm going to make a very quick trip to the apartment and I'm bringing back food and a change of clothes for you."

She tore her attention away from Rui for a moment to thank his brother and say goodbye. Then she went back to her vigil.

In the silent stillness of the hospital room, her blinks started to come more and more frequently. The harder she tried to keep her lids open, the heavier they became. Eventually she gave in and decided to rest her eyes for a few minutes, knowing that if Rui woke up she would still hear it.

When they opened again, there was a fluffy blanket tucked around her and soft slippers on her feet. The right foot felt numb and when she examined it more closely she discovered that it had been anaesthetized, stitched, and bandaged.

_How the hell long was I resting my eyes for? _

On the nightstand was a plate of riceballs and Meg grabbed one, stuffing it in her mouth greedily. Tokage was nowhere to be seen, but the cooking was unmistakably his. She happily ate another and another until the plate was empty. The clock on the wall read seven-fifteen, but everything was still so calm and quiet that Meg could forgive herself for sleeping.

Then, with a gasp, she noticed that Rui's eyes were open.

She leapt from the chair and leaned over him. "Ru! Oh my god! Ru, how long have you been awake? I didn't… I didn't even realize… How do you feel?"

His gaze was glassy, fixed on the ceiling, and he didn't say a word.

"Should I get the doctor?" she asked. "Or your brother?"

He wet his dry lips with his tongue and spoke in quiet, ghostly voice. "I already talked to the doctor while you were sleeping."

Meg swallowed nervously. What was the right thing to say to him now? Tell him how lucky he is to be alive? Or would that just sound like a hollow platitude? Suggest revenge against the woman responsible? Launch into a discussion about the possibilities of prosthetics in American Football?

There was one thing that she knew she could say. "Is there anything I can do for you?" The fact that he continued to stare hopelessly was disturbing, but his answer to her question was flat-out terrifying.

"Kill me," he said in desolate monotone.

"What?" she stammered. "Don't say shit like that, Rui. I'm not going to lie and say that everything is okay. But Ru, you're alive. Don't you know how amazing that is?" She watched his face carefully for any twitch of muscle that might hint at what was in his brain.

Green eyes narrowed. "Why don't you tell me," he said slowly, bitterly. "Tell me how amazing it is that I have many, many long years as a crippled freak ahead of me" The bitterness was evolving into white-hot anger. "Please tell me how a life where I not only can't play football or ride my bike, but can't even feed or bathe myself is better than a death where I'd go down in Zokugaku history. Tell me, woman, because I'd really like to know."

Meg knew she shouldn't get mad at him. The guy had just woken up after life-changing surgery. But hearing him treat his own life so cheaply when it was priceless to her she just couldn't hold her tongue.

"Is that the philosophy you want to bestow on your child?" she asked. "That a life that's difficult is worthless? That it's better to be dead than to need other people's help? Your life is going to be fucking hard from now on, Ru, but you have people who love you and are worth living for. So don't you dare say you would rather be dead."

"Don't try and push some delusional feel-good message about love on this situation," he spat. "You sound like that fucking Deimon Manager. I lost my arms, Meg. My FUCKING arms! What use am I to a damn baby I can't even hold? You'll both be better off without me. Go marry fucking Takekura for all I care!"

The baby kicked so viciously Meg winced and put a hand on her stomach. "Ow! You're pissing off the kid, Ru. And you're pissing off me. I don't want Takekura! I want you, Rui! And it doesn't matter how many arms or legs you have or if you can hold our baby, just as long as you're with us." Her voice got quieter. "I thought you wanted us, too. I thought that's why you were on your bike last night."

Rui jerked his head to the side sullenly. "Yeah, well I made the wrong choice. And I'm not just saying that because I'm angry. Now get out of my room."

His words cut her like a scalpel. _Dammit! I didn't mean to make things worse! I know he has every right to be furious, but the things he said…If he knew how horrible I felt when I thought he was dead…_

Pain suddenly filled her belly as the baby thrashed and she doubled over. "Ow! What is wrong with this kid today? Ouch!"

"What? Are you trying to make me feel guilty now?" Rui sulked.

"No!" she moaned as another horrifying wave of pain gripped her abdomen. "Something isn't right! This baby is going crazy! Ow! I think I need a doctor!"

She stayed bent over, breathing tensely through her teeth, and eventually the pain passed and she stood back up.

"Are you okay?" Rui asked shakily, his anger seemingly abandoned and replaced with concern.

"I think so," she panted. When she took the first step back towards her chair she felt a warm wet gush between her legs and knew immediately that she had been wrong. She stood frozen in place as Rui stared at her. "Oh shit," she squeaked. "I think my water just broke."

To be continued…


	11. Daughter

Free Talk- This is the penultimate chapter. One more after this and probably an epilogue. I am extremely grateful to anyone who has made it this far and hope you will stay until the end. It's so close! Thank you for the comment and support. Please tell me what ou think.

**Bittersweet Symphony**  
By Miss Angel Maxwell

* * *

Chapter 11: Daughter

* * *

"What is that machine for?" Meg's voice was wobbly, her eyes wide on the piece of equipment being strapped against her exposed belly.

"It's a fetal heart rate monitor," the obstetrician said calmly. "This will let us know if the baby becomes distressed." She looked down reassuringly at Meg. "We're going to do everything we can to stop the contractions. You're both in good hands."

Good hands could only do so much, of course. There was no failsafe way to keep this baby inside her until it was safe to be born, just as no amount of medical intervention could have saved Rui's arms.

Meg tried to stay calm, breathing deep and slow as that doctor injected various drugs into her IV bag. One would hopefully stop her labor. Another would grow the baby's lungs in case the first one didn't work. God she hoped the first one would work.

_It's like the Universe had a sit-down meeting with Rui's mom and Hiruma to discuss how to further fuck up our lives. And the worst part is that we can't even be together for this. Rui and I are trapped in our beds, tethered to two different floors of the same hospital._

The look on his face when the doctor whisked her out of his room to rush her to the obstetric ward had been heartbreaking. She'd never seen such a helpless expression. Rui was still suffering so much grief and shock over his horrendous injury. He shouldn't have to worry about her and the baby yet.

Another painful contraction seized her and her eyes squeezed shut as her fingers clenched the bed sheets beneath her. "Dammit," she growled. "Why is this happening? Did I do something wrong?"

"According to your chart that Dr. Minagawa faxed me, you did everything _right_," said the doctor, sighing with her eyes. "Unfortunately, most premature labor happens for no apparent reason. It's completely random."

_Random? Yeah right._

Meg listened to the little blips that indicated the baby's heartbeat was normal and used them as a guide to keep her breathing even. Each breath she counted to see how many it would take before the next frightening spell of pain.

_Thirty-nine, forty, forty-one, forty-two…_ Right as she counted up to Rui's number, she felt the sharp, squeezing ache again and the monitor beeped more urgently. But this one didn't hurt as bad or as long as her previous contractions.

The next one didn't start for eighty-nine breaths and was even milder. After that, she stopped counting somewhere in the hundreds.

On her next examination, the doctor assessed Meg's condition with an optimistic smile. "Well, it's been over an hour since your last contraction, so it seems the drug is working. This is very encouraging."

It hadn't felt like an hour to Meg, who had been so caught up in her counting. "So does this mean I'm not in labor?" she asked. The doctor's head bobbed affirmatively and Meg felt an upwelling of relief. "How soon can I go back and be with Rui?"

"Unfortunately," the doctor sighed, "you'll have to remain on complete bed rest from now until you deliver."

"What?" Meg squawked incredulously. "You mean I'm stuck in this bed for two more months?"

The doctor shook her head. "The likelihood of carrying to full term once the membranes have ruptured is extremely narrow. The drugs are simply a means to delay labor for as long as possible and give the baby more time to grow stronger. Staying horizontal will help prevent labor from starting again."

Meg's spirit drooped at the revelation that she was not out of the woods yet. "Can arrangements be made for me to see him, though?" she asked. "You could just wheel me up next to him. I should be with him, holding his…"

She had almost said 'holding his hand,' but caught herself in time. That was one thing she couldn't do for him even if she weren't bedridden.

"I'll see what I can do to set that up," said the doctor. "In the mean time, you just lay back and try to relax. It's the best thing you can do now."

"And you're sure there was really nothing I could have done to prevent this?" Meg asked anxiously.

"I'm sure," the doctor told her gently. "It's one of those things that just happen. This wasn't your fault, Miss Tsuyumine."

As the obstetrician walked out of the curtained off space, a nurse walked in and placed an object in Meg's hand. "A large, bushy-haired man who identified himself as your big brother told me to return this to you," said the nurse. "It is yours, right?"

"Yeah, that's my cell phone," Meg said, turning the familiar object over in her hand. "Thank you. And, uh, if you see him, say thank you to my brother."

"No problem," the nurse said politely.

Barely a second after he exited, Meg's phone burst out singing its loud ring tone. She pressed the talk button and felt an instant glow in her chest when she heard the voice that greeted her.

"Meg? Are you… okay?"

"I'm hanging in there, Ru," she said.

"What about the baby? Is it…?" his voice quavered slightly.

"It's still right where you left it," she answered. "At least for now. Apparently it's very touch-and-go from here."

There was a very faint sigh of defeat on the other end and when Rui spoke again it was slow and deliberate. "Meg, I've been thinking about it, and I think you should go back and live with your mother once the baby is born."

"No way," she adamantly declared. "I am not going back to that woman. Not after she told me to give our baby away."

Rui made a frustrated little grunt. "She can still give you two a stable home, which is more than I can do for you."

"But I want to stay with _you_," she stammered, hot emotion starting to rise in her esophagus.

"I'm sorry," he told her gravely. "I won't let you come back to the apartment. One helpless dependant is enough for you to handle."

"What the? Why are you telling me this now?" She asked sharply. "And on the phone? Rui, can't we talk about this at a less tumultuous time? I asked my doctor to set things up for us to see each other face-to-face. We can talk about living arrangement then, o… OOOOOOO!"

What was going to be the word 'okay' transformed into a howl of agony as excruciating pain tore her body in half. The phone fell from her hand and onto the floor with a plastic clatter and Rui's muddled shouts from the distant speaker were drowned out by the frantic beeping of the fetal heart rate monitor.

A flurry of chaos surrounded her as a doctor rushed to her bed and right away examined between her legs.

Meg was too scared to be self-conscious. "What's going on?" she whimpered through her pain. "I thought the contractions had stopped."

"Unfortunately, they've started again," said the doctor. "And now your labor is progressing very rapidly."

"Can't you give me more drugs and stop it again?" Meg asked in a panic.

The doctor shook her head. "I'm afraid it's too late. The baby isn't handling the contractions well, so the sooner we get it out, the better. We're going to take you straight to labor and delivery."

Fear like none she'd ever known filled Meg to the brim until she was overflowing as she watched the light fixtures on the hall ceiling rush by. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. The baby wasn't supposed to come out of her until late September and Rui was supposed to be holding her hand. Rui was supposed to _have_ hands to hold.

The doctor wheeled her bed into an elevator (the dreaded box), but before the door closed, she heard a familiar voice calling her name.

"Meg! Please, someone hold that elevator!"

Instinctively, Meg called back. "Mama!"

As soon as she heard what the relationship was, the doctor pushed the door back open and Meg's mother dashed inside. The first thing she did was grab one of her daughter's hands with both of hers and press a kiss to the knuckles. Her cheeks were wet.

"I'm so sorry, Meg," she cried. "I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner. Your biker's older brother called me and I came as fast as I could, but…"

It must be biochemical. That was the only explanation Meg could think of for how elated she felt to see this woman right now. In spite of everything that had happened between them, she didn't want her mother to let go of her hand. "It's okay, Mama. You're here now. Please don't leave me."

"I won't," Mom said. There was something in her face, some emotion, which was hard to discern. "I never should have kicked you out, or said any of the cruel things I did to you, Meg. I _wouldn't_ be better off if I'd given you up for adoption. I'd be a million times worse off. From the moment the doctor set you in my arms, I've loved you more than anything in the world. You're my baby, Meg. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

The elevator door opened and Meg was rushed straight into a delivery room, Mom keeping pace the whole time, never releasing her hand. There was almost no time in between the contractions now and the sustained pain blurred her perception of what was happening in the room.

She thought she caught a glimpse of the doctor scrubbing her hands and she might have heard someone talk about being ready for a twenty-nine week newborn. But she wasn't sure.

The next clear image was the doctor, in gloves and mask, telling her it was time to push, and as much as Meg's body ached to do just that, her heart wasn't behind it. She didn't want to push her baby out, knowing it would be weak and small. With pleading eyes, she looked up at her mother for guidance.

"You can do this, honey," Mom said, and for the first time Meg could remember, her gaze held no judgment, just unconditional parental love. It was the emotion she was having so much trouble identifying.

So Meg pushed. Every time the doctor told her to, she pushed as hard as she possibly could until she was exhausted, drenched in sweat and panting.

"Just one more big push," the doctor assured.

Meg took a deep breath and used it to bear down with all her strength until she was absolutely spent and collapsed. Her energy was depleted, but the sound of a teeny cry let her know that it had all been worth it.

The doctor pulled down her mask to reveal a smile. "It's a little boy," she said. "And I do mean little. He's tiny, but he looks about as healthy as a baby so small could be."

"A boy?" Meg breathed, too tired to put any emotion in her voice. "Can I… hold him?"

"As soon as he's cleaned up," said the doctor. "But only for a few minutes. Babies his size lose body heat quickly when exposed, so he'll have to go in an incubator."

Seconds later, a small bundle of blue blanket was gently placed in Meg's arms. She looked down at the tiniest baby she'd ever seen, nestled in the flannel folds. "He's itty-bitty," she said, lost in awe. "You'd think he would have been easier to get out."

"He's gorgeous, Meg," Mom whispered, smoothing back her daughter's wet bangs. "Look at that little tuft of black fluff, the same color as yours before you started dying it."

"Rui has black hair, too," Meg reminded. "So it could have come from either of us. I hope he'll have green eyes, though. Like his daddy."

That miniscule weight in her arms (just 1.5 kilograms according to the doctor), felt somehow so much bigger. He wasn't just a white spot on a black screen anymore. He wasn't a creature, a little bird that fluttered in her belly. He was a tiny but perfect little boy, her son, the life that she and Rui had made together completely by accident.

Entirely too soon, though, the doctor came and lifted him out of her arms. The separation caused tears to well up in Meg's eyes.

_Come back. We were just getting to know each other…_

"It's going to be okay," her mother said, as if maternal instinct had told her that her child needed comfort. "After you've rested you can go see him in the intensive care nursery." Then she pressed a kiss to Meg's temple. "You were amazing, baby."

…

He looked so much tinier inside his plastic box than he had nestled in her arms, so much more fragile. Meg had come to see him as soon as the hospital staff would let her (which wasn't until after a good, long nap), and she had been stationed next to his incubator, like a gargoyle, for the last two hours.

Maternal instinct was a very strange thing, she'd concluded. Here she was, a proud juvenile delinquent who hated those sticky, screaming creatures known as children, and all she could think about was how she would do anything for this helpless little boy. She still hated all other children, but this one she loved instantly just because he was hers.

"Remarkable, isn't it?" a voice spoke behind her. "You never think you'd ever want one until you have one."

She looked up at her mother's smile. "How'd you know what I was thinking?"

"Intuition," Mom said with a shrug. "Plus the way you're looking at him. It's the exact same way I looked at you when you were a newborn."

Meg scratched her head awkwardly. "Uh, no offense, Mom… but did you recently have a concussion or a brain transplant or something? Since the moment you showed up at the hospital, you've been a totally different woman from the one I grew up with." She narrowed her eyes accusingly. "Are you an alien pod person?"

Her mother's face wilted sheepishly, "I totally deserve your suspicions," she sighed. "You probably don't remember, but I wasn't always so selfish and obsessed with appearances." Her hand dipped into her purse and pulled out a narrow piece of paper that she handed to her daughter.

"Oh wow," Meg said when she laid eyes on the strip of photo booth pictures. In each frame her mother, father, and little three-year old self were making different silly faces, sticking out tongues and smooshing cheeks. "I can't believe you'd ever act like that. But… we all look so happy."

"We were," Mom said with a wistful smile. "Your dad was such a goofball, and he brought that out in everyone else. I found this strip of photos right after having cake with you and it made me realize just how far I'd pushed you away. Even before I kicked you out."

Not able to think of adequate words to give her mother, Meg stood up and wrapped her arms around the woman in a silent embrace.

"I'm going to continue atoning for my mistakes in the past," Mom said softly, still holding the hug tight. "It may be too late for me to give you the kind of childhood you deserved, but I will be the best grandmother that little boy could have."

Meg spilled a snort against her mom's shoulder. "Considering what his other grandma is like, you'll be a frickin' Mrs. Santa Claus."

Mom drew back but kept her hands on Meg's shoulders and looked at her eye-to-eye. "I heard about Habashira's accident, about his… arms…"

Even her mother (who had never been a fan of the guy) looked and sounded sad when mentioning Rui's injury. "Yeah," Meg said glumly. "I still don't know how I'm going to get through to him. And from now on my attention is going to be divided because I've got someone even more vulnerable who needs me." Her eyes darted to the tiny baby.

"It's too much for a teenager to have to handle," Mom said gently. "But you know the offer for you too move back in with me still stands. With no conditions this time, I promise. I'll even babysit for you so you can finish your last year of school."

A hot lump, like a chunk of coal, stuck in Meg's throat as she considered the offer. She had already vociferously rejected a similar proposal from her mom just two days ago, but in that short time circumstances had changed like winds in a typhoon.

_Dammit! This time she really is offering the best solution. If Mom really has changed for good, she'll be a tremendous help. I mean, she's actually owned one of these little things. It'll be so much easier for me to finish school. And of course with Rui the way he is…_

The coal in her throat blazed. Rui himself had told her to go back to her mother, knowing it would be the most favorable arrangement. But there was still a fatal flaw, something she couldn't live without that would be missing if she went back: Him. Her Rui.

"I'll… have to think about it," she said in an indecisive voice.

Mom reached and wiped away a stray tear from her daughter's face. "I know you will, honey. Now, I'm gonna go and get you some lunch, but I'll come right back." Then she gave Meg a peck on the forehead and exited.

Thinking about it was not what Meg needed. Thinking about it would drive her insane. She needed to see Rui. Right now. She needed a sign that there was hope for them. Any small sign.

A last longing look at her diminutive son (as well as a dozen snapshots on her cell phone) was necessary before leaving, though.

So damn cute! If she had to, Meg would happily pound the snot out of a thousand skanks and smash a million testicles to protect that little guy.

Her slippers beat a swift path through the hospital hallways. Ignoring her doctor's advice not to exert herself so soon, she bolted up the stairs. There was no way she could tolerate another elevator.

When she reached the door to Rui's room, an unfamiliar man was just exiting. He was wearing an exasperated expression and shaking his head, muttering something under his breath that Meg couldn't understand.

"Excuse me?" she asked cautiously. "There's not something wrong with the patient in this room, is there? I mean, anything _new_ wrong with him?"

"That young man," the stranger sighed. "He's the most uncooperative patient I've ever had to deal with as a physical therapist. I understand that he's angry and frustrated, but he refuses to even listen to me talk about his rehabilitation. And to use such harsh language against people who are trying to help him… I just hope he can find a way to make peace with his injury and reclaim his life. If he doesn't, he's just going to sink deeper into depression and eventually will attempt to take his own life."

Meg felt a fiery pinch in her chest. The coal was slowly sliding into her stomach. _Take his own life? Is Rui really capable of that? I can't let it happen… I won't!_

She stepped inside his room and found him, just as he had been the last time she saw him, staring gloomily at the ceiling. He didn't seem to notice she had entered, so she announced herself.

"Hi, Ru," she said softly, drawing his eyes to her. "How're you feeling?"

He shot her a 'you-know-I-feel-like-shit-so-why-are-you-even-asking?' glare.

"Sorry," she said. "I guess it's one of those things that you feel like you're supposed to say in this sort of situation. I, uh, guess you've probably already heard this by now, but you have a son."

Rui looked away sadly. "_You_ have a son."

"What are you saying?" she asked him sternly. "Are you going to deny your own flesh and blood?"

"Look, Meg," he said. "That little guy… He's really little, right? He deserves a father who can hold him, and hug him, and show him how to throw a football. A father that's whole, not some busted-up worthless piece of shit like me."

Meg frowned severely and crossed her arms over her chest. "It really pisses me off to hear you spouting such slander about the guy I love. And I will not let any other man be my son's father. It's gotta be you or no one, Rui."

"Then it's no one," he spat. "At least then you can tell him that his old man is a football ace. A stunt biker. A fucking astronaut. Anything but a useless, armless cripple."

Her eyes burned with encroaching tears. "Have you even seen him yet? Have you seen your son?"

"No," he admitted, his thin eyebrows scrunching together guiltily.

Meg whipped out her phone and shoved it in his face as she scrolled through the pictures she'd taken. "Look at him, Ru. Isn't he precious?"

"Wait a minute," Rui snorted. "Is that a close-up of Takekura's butt?"

In her haste, she had clicked through the entire album and returned to the oldest photo saved. "That's really old," she snapped defensively. Then she quickly deleted it and returned to a shot of the baby with a clear view of the black wisps sticking out under his bitty blue cap. "That's your son, Rui. That's why you have to work hard on your physical therapy. He needs you."

Rui turned his eyes away from the screen. "He doesn't need me," he said miserably. "What can I even do for him?"

" All you have to do is love him," Meg said. By now she was crying without restraint, fueled by hormones and tiredness. "That's it. No arms required. He's really tiny and… and he could get sick really easily. He could still die, Rui!"

"What do you want me to do?" he snarled.

"I just want… I want…" Her words were becoming tangled with her sobs. "You have to live, Rui. You have to be there when I bring him home to our apartment."

"You mean when he comes home to you and your mother's house," Rui corrected snappishly.

"Are you still stuck on that idea?" she huffed. "It's not happening. He and I belong in your life and in your home. You even said it yourself that you were proud I refused to move back to my mom's. Please, just tell me you still want us to live with you, that you still want us in your life."

"I already told you NO, damn woman!" he growled. "I don't want either of you to have to see me like this every day! To have to live with me like this and take care of me!"

"Why do you have to be so fucking stubborn, Rui? I love you, dammit!"

"Yeah, well your love won't make my arms grow back, stupid woman!"

That was as much as Meg could stand to hear. She mopped her glazed cheeks with the sleeve of her robe, turned on heel and dashed out of the room.

_Stupid Rui! Stupid, stupid, STUPID Rui! God, how can I even think that about a guy who just lost his arms? I'm a terrible person! I'm horrible! I just… I can't take it… I don't know how to help him. I don't know how to help the baby… I…_

She ran all the way back to the intensive care nursery and found her mother waiting outside the door. "Mama!" she cried as she flung herself into the woman's arms. "Mama, I want to go home. I want to go home."

"Okay," Mom whispered, stoking her back tenderly. "Please don't cry, honey. It's going to be all right. You're going to come home with me."

But Meg couldn't seem to stop her weeping. _Fucking hormones_, she cursed in her head, even though she knew they couldn't take all the blame.

"I'm going to go back and sit with the baby a little longer," she whimpered. "I'll eat later."

She weaved her way through the equipment and incubators in the nursery back to the box containing her son. The faintly glowing coal in her belly was extinguished by a bucket of ice water when she saw the doctor hovering over his open case.

"What's going on? Is something wrong?" she asked breathlessly.

"He was just having a little trouble regulating his breathing," said the doctor. "He's fine now, but we'll have to monitor him closely. It seems the stress of living outside the womb is starting to catch up with him, leaving him extra vulnerable."

"Then I won't leave his side," Meg declared. She tried to make her voice sound brave, but inside, sharp claws of fear and anguish were tearing her to shreds.

_Rui, I need you!_

To be continued…


	12. Fathers

Free Talk- Here it is, the concluding chapter! Thank you so much to everyone who read this story. It was so much fun to write. I haven't decided yet if I want to add an epilogue. I wanted to wait and see what other people think first, so please tell me if you think an epilogue would be fitting. I still have a lot of Eyeshield 21 story ideas in my head that fit into the same timeline as this one. If I write any more of them, I can only hope they will be as well-recieved as this one. Again, thank you thank you thank you! And please tell me what you think.

**Bittersweet Symphony  
**By Miss Angel Maxwell

* * *

Chapter 12: Fathers

* * *

_Blip. Blip. Blip. Blip._

The heart monitor chirped out a steady, droning rhythm and the glow behind the window shades changed color, yellow to orange to red to purple, before finally fading into night.

Meg had been sitting in the same rocking chair all day, only getting up to use the bathroom (which wasn't too often since she had lost any desire for food or drink). Without sunlight and without any disruption in the endlessly repeating sounds of equipment, it was hard for her to gauge how many hours of vigilance she'd already given to the tiny struggling life.

Mom had gone home to sleep long ago, but not before trying to convince her daughter to get some rest as well. _"Just a quick nap, one or two hours, would do you so much good,"_ she'd said.

But Meg was not going to leave the nursery, even for a few hours. If her baby's precarious health took a turn for the worse while she was asleep, she'd never forgive herself. Besides that, there was no way she could fall asleep with a brain full of cold fear.

Her eyes were dry and sore from being forced to stay open for so long, but she had to keep watching that teeny chest move to know he was still breathing.

_The machines will let me know if anything goes wrong_, her brain reminded. _And there is a nurse in the room, keeping watch. I suppose it might be alright to just rest my eyeballs for a few minutes, so they won't shrivel up and fall out of their sockets._

The moist lids were soothing, but after a second they shot back open with an accompanying gasp. The monitor was still beeping the same cadence, the little ribcage still expanding and contracting. Her panic had been over nothing so she let her eyelids slowly ease shut again.

Sightless, her ears were acutely tuned to sound. Suddenly the silent space revealed itself, alive with soft and distant noises. Somebody was walking trough a hallway on the floor above. A car passed on the street, outside and far below. The nurse turned a page in her novel.

After some time (Meg had no idea how much), there were footfalls in the hall just outside, and another sound she couldn't identify, something between a squeak and a whir. They were coupled together and drawing nearer. The door to the nursery clicked gently open and the noises came inside and back to where she sat motionless.

She could feel the weight of shadow on her as they stopped right next to her and she opened one eye an unnoticeable sliver. All she caught a glimpse of were the spokes of a large wheel. The mystery noise was a wheelchair moving.

"I'm glad she's finally getting a little sleep. We'll have to be quiet so we don't wake her up."

_Mom? She said she was going home for the night. She thinks I'm asleep…_

Meg kept her body absolutely still, her eyes absolutely closed. This became even more difficult when she heard the other voice and her heart started to pump faster.

"Why did you bring me here?" Rui said, tired-sounding and suspicious.

"Because you needed to see him in person," Mom whispered. "Not just on a cell phone screen. So what do you think?"

"He's lot smaller than I expected. He's, uh… he's not in pain… is he?" His voice carried so much guilt when he asked, it was hard for Meg to keep her perfect composure while listening.

"No," said Mom. "I don't think so. But I imagine he's scared. Yesterday he was safe and warm, getting everything he needed through his belly button. And now he's trapped in a box, no idea what's going on as he fights with all his might just to stay alive."

Rui let out an anguished sigh. "I can't believe this happened to him. Little guy never did anything wrong, a total innocent. And Meg doesn't deserve any of the shit she's been through, either."

"Yeah, it's pretty fucked up." As weird as the f-word sounded coming from her mother's mouth, what came out next was even more shocking. "Habashira, did Meg ever talk to you about her father?"

_Why would she talk about Dad? She hates the guy._

"Not a lot," Rui answered. "Just that he died of cancer when she was really little, and that she doesn't remember much about him. Except he liked American football."

Even with closed eyes, Meg could tell that Mom was smiling wistfully just by her intonation. "Her father _loved_ American football, which, when he and I first met, was even less known in Japan than it is now. Looking back, it's amazing that our high school even had a team. But if it hadn't, Meg wouldn't exist in this world."

"Huh?" Rui's utterance expressed her own confusion as well.

"It was watching him on the field that made me fall for him," Mom explained. "Man, he was an amazing cornerback. I went to all the games just to see him play and I guess he saw me too, because we got married soon after graduating."

"Did he still play after that?" Rui asked curiously. "I mean not many Japanese universities could have had American football back then."

"He never went to university anyways," Mom sighed. "With a baby on the way he couldn't afford it. But of course that didn't stop him. He organized a team of guys that he worked with and arranged games against other teams. He had a job, but football was his life." She paused. "Until he got sick."

"And you resented him for not being strong enough to beat cancer. At least… that's the impression I got from Meg."

Her mother's voice took on a remorseful pitch. "Yeah, that is how it must have seemed to her. After all, I never told her the truth about how he _really_ died."

_Wait, does this mean that Dad didn't really have cancer, or just that it wasn't what killed him?_

Meg's heart got faster and louder, so much that she actually worried it might alert them to the fact that she was awake and listening with rapt anticipation.

"What do you mean?" Rui asked, seemingly for her sake.

"Meg's father was on the road to remission," said her mother. "The chemotherapy was working. But for some reason… because of the pain of his treatment, or because he knew he would be too weak to ever play football again… he saved up all the painkillers they gave him and took them all at once, killing himself."

Every nerve, every muscle in Meg's body was working at its limit to keep her absolutely motionless in light of this revelation. _Dad… committed suicide? That means all these years…_

"All these years I've been lying to my daughter," Mom continued with perfect timing. "I wanted to spare her the shame of having a father who'd committed suicide. But now I realize that I did more harm to her than good. My bitterness and resentment still came out, but she didn't understand why."

"If you ask me, Meg turned out pretty damn incredible despite your attitude."

An embarrassingly giddy thrill sparkled in her chest to hear that from Rui, but she didn't let it disrupt her imitated sleep. She didn't want to miss a single detail.

"She _is_ incredible," Mom agreed. "I don't know how she grew up to be so strong-willed and fierce having me as a mother. But I'm proud of her. I just wish… I wish I hadn't pushed her away so much. And all because she reminded me of the man I'd loved more than anything in the world. I never forgave him for giving up, for abandoning his family. So I took it out on Meg."

_Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry._ Meg tightened her jaw to try to enforce the order her brain was giving, but it was difficult when she was just learning these things for the first time. _Mom really did love Dad. She didn't think he was weak for dying of cancer, but because he refused to fight. How would that even make her feel? Maybe like her love wasn't enough to keep him in this world? This is all so… I had no idea._

There was a brief silence before Rui responded to what her mother had said. His words were slow and soft. "Mrs. Tsuyumine… Why are you telling me this? If you're trying to convince me to let her go back to you so you can mend your relationship, there's no need. I already told her that's what she should do… I mean, as long as you don't tell her to give that little guy away."

"Never," Mom said. "But that isn't why I brought you here and told you these things. No matter what I think of you, you are the love of my little girl's life and the father of my grandchild. Your life is precious to them, Habashira Rui, and therefore precious to me."

"I'm not going to kill myself," he quietly snorted.

"It's not enough to simply not kill yourself. You have to choose to _live._ Don't just go through the motions, but make your life count. And don't cast away those who love you like Meg's father did. Just look at your son in there. Every breath he takes is a miracle. He's using all the strength in his tiny body just for a shot at one more day."

"Look," Rui sighed. "Like I told Meg, the best thing I can do for him, and for her, is to not make their lives even more difficult. It doesn't mean I don't care about them… that I don't… you know… love them."

He said it. It was indirect and reluctant, but he said that he loved her and the baby. Suddenly the excitement drained like liquid from her body. _Aw shit, I must have fallen asleep. Rui doesn't use that word, not for anything other than American football or his bike. Which means this is a dream, a bizarre, sound-only dream. None of these thing's I'm overhearing are even real._

Her mother spoke again. "If you love my daughter then quit making her cry." There was assertiveness (not bossiness) in her voice that Meg had never heard before. "If you really love her, stop breaking her heart."

"I'm not doing it on purpose," Rui growled, the wheelchair he sat in rattling slightly under his tensed body. "But I've already made up my mind on this. I'm not abandoning them. I'm setting them free. Isn't that what you want? Don't you want her to come home with you instead of me?"

Gah! Even in my dreams he's just a big stubborn dummy! But… he said that he loves me. Mom said she loved Dad. This is such a vivid dream… I don't want to wake up yet. Please, let me stay in this dream just… a little…

Her thoughts broke apart like drift ice and she never heard the rest of the conversation as her mind and her body were tugged into wakefulness.

Meg awoke in a vast field of grass that was tattooed with evenly spaced white lines, a football field of course. In front of her, the offensive linemen were in formation with their backs to her, waiting for something.

"Tsuyumine, get your ass in gear!" one of them yelled, and looking at her shirt Meg saw a number on the chest.

_Jeez, how could I forget that I'm the quarterback? I swear I am losing my nerves. Ugh! And since when have our uniforms been pink?_

Now that she remembered her position, she took her place behind the center and barked out the count. "Blue! Forty-two! Set! Hut!"

The center hiked the ball into her poised hands, and to her utter shock, it wriggled! She looked down and saw that it wasn't a football that had been passed to her, but a tiny, football-sized baby.

"What the?" It wasn't just any baby. It was _her_ baby, and he was in danger! Two players from the opposing team's defense had broken away and were hurtling towards her! "Crap! I'll have to make a pass." Her eyes scanned the field but none of her teammates were open. Hell, she couldn't even find any of her teammates.

"You're going down," one of the ambushers hissed gleefully. Meg recognized the voice and the whorishly painted face behind the cage.

"You two bitches?" she scoffed. "Haven't you taken enough of my abuse off the field?"

Ignoring her completely, the two girls lunged at once, and for some reason, perhaps all the bulky protective gear, they looked much larger and more threatening than they ever had before. With nowhere to run and nobody to pass to, Meg tucked the baby under one arm and pulled her wooden sword from behind her back.

"It may be against the rules, but I've got no other options." One fluid movement of her arm brought the blade crashing into both opponents and at the instant of contact, the two girls, as well as the sword, exploded into a shower of chocolate candies.

Behind the rain of sweets she suddenly caught sight of a pair of bloodthirsty eyes, bulging from beneath a domed helmet. That hateful, cold-blooded glare was unmistakably Habashira Yamori, but her body had been super-sized so she now bore a striking resemblance to a female version of the Dinosaurs' Gaou.

_Damn! How'd that bitch get pumped so fast? She's gonna crush me!_

But Yamori didn't burst forward to sack her, not yet. She was a tiger in the bushes, raising her hackles in preparation for the pounce, enjoying the look of terror on the face of her cornered prey.

A realization struck Meg like a sudden bolt of lightning. _Rui is on my team! I have to pass him the ball… er, the baby…_ Her eyes desperately combed the field. Still, no trace of any teammates. _Where the HELL are you, Rui?_

Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpses a retreating fleck of white: the back of Rui's long jacket as he walked out of the football stadium.

"Wait!" Meg shouted at full volume. "Rui! Come back here!" At the same time, Yamori launched herself forward, powerful arms held stiffly in front for a swift take-down. But for some reason, everything shifted into super slow motion. The attacker seemed almost suspended in air.

_Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!_

The sound of a motorcycle cut through the stretched silence as a brilliantly restored Zephyr zoomed onto the field at normal speed and skidded to a stop next to Meg. It could only be one person.

She turned hopeful eyes towards the driver, but found herself looking, not at Rui, but at a face that had practically slipped from her memory. "Dad?" she uttered as he smiled warmly at her. "You… you aren't dead?"

"I'm here to help you," he said, extending his arms to her. "Give me the ball. Give me my grandson."

Meg did what he asked without hesitating, though she knew this went against the rules of American football. "Here, take him and get away as fast as you can."

Her dad nodded, tucked the baby against his side like a football, and sped away steering with just one hand. Meg turned to face her attacker, but Yamori had vanished. All of the players had. There wasn't even a football field anymore, just claustrophobic black all around her and a shrinking dot that was her father taking her baby far, far away on Rui's bike.

"Wait!" she screamed. "Come back, Dad! You can't have him! Give him back!"

With a violent shuddering gasp, Meg opened her eyes to the glow of morning spilling through the nursery window. Her heartbeat was galloping like a thoroughbred and her skin was sheathed in cold sweat.

"Oh sweet god," she sighed, closing her eyes while she pressed a palm to her wet forehead. "It was just a hellish dream." As her chest calmed, she opened eyes and her body immediately seized up again. Her son's incubator was empty.

"Where's my baby?" she shrieked, leaping to her feet. "My baby boy! He's gone! Someone help! Doctor? Nurse? Anyone!"

"Jeez. Do you have to be so damn noisy, woman? You'll wake him up."

She twisted immediately around to the source of the familiar voice. He was in a rocking chair in the nearest corner of the nursery, tilted so far back that his torso was almost horizontal. A blue flannel blanket was draped over his chest.

"Rui?" she breathed.

"That's a better indoor voice. I know you love to scream, but this is a fucking nursery." The way he spoke sounded so much the same as he did before the accident, which was so much different from the way he spoke the past two days.

Meg approached with cautious little steps until she was close enough to see a teensy hand poking out from under the blue blanket. "You're holding him," she said softly.

Rui looked at her like she was a moron. "Well of course I'm not _holding_ him, dummy. I no longer have arms, remember?"

"Of course I remember," she said, frowning even though her chest felt as light as if it were filled with helium. Then she asked with more nervousness, "Is it really okay for him to be out of his incubator?"

"Would I have him out of his box if it wasn't safe?" he replied, with just a hint of a smirk. "The doctor gave the okay. Apparently skin-to-skin contact a few hours a day is good for them, or something."

The way he acted indifferent to avoid looking like a sap was such a Rui response. It made Meg's insides feel warm. No matter how casual he acted, she could tell that he cared just by the way he looked at that little bundle of boy over his heart.

_He's not feeling sorry for himself. He's not despairing. It's like a miracle… if I believed in them._

She knelt down next to the rocking chair and rested her head against his shoulder (being very careful not to put any pressure on his bandages, of course). The baby was blissfully asleep against his skin, little eyes closed, little hands curled into cozy fists.

Rui looked just as comfortable, as if he was sharing the peace in that tiny body through osmosis.

"You seem to be feeling better today," Meg commented. "Did they up your painkillers?"

"I don't think so," he said. "No, I'm just in a better mood I guess because I found something I can actually do for this guy. And believe it or not it was that frosty mom of yours who suggested it."

"My mom?" she puzzled.

"Yeah, I'm as shocked as you. But last night she woke me up and dragged my ass down here to see the little guy and to tell about this kind of therapy. Wallaby, or koala… it has some stupid animal name."

"Last night?" Just two words slipped from her mouth as dozens more flew through her brain.

_Last night I had a dream that Mom and Rui were in here talking. But then I started dreaming for real… something about football, I think. So does that mean the stuff I overheard was real? I don't remember any animal-named therapy, but maybe it was after I fell asleep. So maybe the stuff about Dad… and Rui saying he loved me…_

"You were snoozing like a grizzly bear in winter the whole time," he said. "Aw jeez, what are you crying about now?"

"Nothing, nothing," she said, sniffing back tears she didn't realize had started to flow. There would be plenty of time to ponder what she'd heard later. "So does this mean you're going to be sticking around with us?"

"I guess it does," he said, and then added more assertively, "Definitely."

"Even though it won't be easy?" Meg asked earnestly.

"Well," Rui answered thoughtfully. "Teaching him to play football with robotic arms, or whatever, might prove to be a challenge. And we probably will still need help from your mom and my brother. But you'll make it work somehow, crazy bitch that you are."

Meg laughed. "I'm _your_ crazy bitch, Habashira Rui. I have been since the day I knocked you out of that tree in the park, and I will be until the day I die."

"Just don't ever crush my balls, okay?" he said.

"As long as you never threaten to leave again," she retorted. Then she leaned closer and pressed her mouth to his, the sweetest kiss yet by far. When it ended, they both looked down at their child. "Can you believe he's really ours?" she whispered.

"It's scary as shit," he admitted. His eyes scrutinized the infant's sleeping face. "I still can't decide…"

"Which one of us he looks like?"

"Offense or defense," Rui corrected, rolling his eyes as if the question were obvious. "But I guess it's too soon to tell. We should probably figure out a name for him first."

"KeKeKeKe!"

The cackle sent a shudder of dread up Meg's spine. She turned her head slowly around to find the demonically pointed shape of Hiruma Youichi. "How the hell did _you_ get inside the intensive care nursery?" she groaned. "It's supposed to be family only. And is that a gun?"

"I told him not to bring it," a sweet voice insisted from behind him.

"Anezaki, you're here too?" Meg greeted as Mamori stepped out of Hiruma's shadow with an armful of flowers.

"Hello, Tsuyumine," she said cheerfully. "When I found out from Hiruma that you'd had the baby, I wanted to bring you some flowers and say congratulations."

Meg stood up and accepted the gift graciously. "Thank you, Anezaki." Her eyes turned back to Hiruma and narrowed down to slits. "That doesn't explain why _you're_ here," she hissed. "And how did you know I'd had the baby?"

"You know I have my sources," he answered with a wicked grin. "As for why I'm here, I just thought I would come to collect the payment for my taxi service."

"What the hell is he talking about, Meg?" Rui asked nervously.

Hiruma sauntered over to Rui's rocking chair and looked down with mock adoration. "Well isn't this the most precious fucking thing I've ever seen," he cooed. "The Fucking Chameleon lost his arms but he can still snuggle wiff his widdle baby. I've gotta take a picture of this."

As the camera flashed, Rui stuck out his long tongue rudely. "If I had hands I'd be giving you the finger with both of 'em. Now what is this payment you're after?"

"What? You mean the Fucking Yankii didn't tell you?" Hiruma asked, pretending to sound surprised. "I'm the one responsible for getting her to the hospital the night of your accident. In return, she gave me authority to name the child that was then residing in her belly."

Rui's face contorted into a horrified gape aimed at Meg. "You told Hiruma he could name our baby?"

She squirmed gracelessly. "Desperate times call for desperate measures," she tried to justify. "Besides I didn't think he'd actually follow through with it."

"I always follow through with what I say I'm going to do," said Hiruma. "Now I've thought about this…" He paused and pulled a folded piece of paper and a pen from his back pocket.

"Wait, what is that?" Meg asked, eyes locked on the document he was now unfolding.

"It's that little speck's birth certificate," he said gleefully. "If it's not official, the name I choose won't stick. As I was about to say, I've thought about this. And I decided that since one of you is a reptile and one of you is violent, only one name will do."

Meg felt all her organs cringe in unison as she watched that pen furiously scrawling.

"Fucking Crocodile!" Hiruma declared, proudly brandishing the certificate.

Immediately, Meg snatched it from his hand and read out loud what he had written. "Habashira Wani." After a few cleansing blinks she looked at it again. "Wow… That's actually kind of cute." She held the paper in front of Rui for him to read.

"It _is_ a good name," he uttered, clearly stunned. "It isn't cruel or derisive or even profane. What are you trying to pull?"

The accused's pointy ears drooped slightly and his lips covered up his sharp teeth, another feigned expression. "Can't I just be a decent guy every once and a while?"

Meg and Rui both looked at him skeptically and then at each other, silently agreeing that Hiruma could not pull off innocence no matter how hard he might try. There was simply no hiding that thick streak of sadism. Together they turned their eyes back on him.

"Alright, alright," Hiruma said, letting his depraved grin return. "The Fucking Old Man said not to screw the kid over, and since he technically provided the service I couldn't argue. But payment for the other thing…" His eyes lit up in the most horrible way.

"What other thing?" a shrill voice cut in. In under a second, Mamori was right in front of him, hands on her hips as she scowled severely.

He made a disinterested face and grunted. "This doesn't concern you, Fucking Manager."

Mamori didn't budge. In fact she leaned in even more threateningly. The pair sustained their stare-off for a long minute until Hiruma's posture sagged.

"I'll drop the subject for now," he grumbled. "But only because I want more time to think of the right price for such a _huge_ favor." He set one hand on the top of Rui's head and messed up his hair like he was petting a shaggy dog. "Enjoy your family time, Fucking Chameleon, Fucking Yankii. But eventually payment will come due."

"I don't even know what you're talking about," Rui spat.

"You will," Hiruma answered, smiling. "You will. Now let's get going, Fucking Manager. We have to make sure the Fucking Shrimp and the others are keeping up with their summer training."

Before following him out of the nursery, Mamori gave Meg the sort of hug that sisters might share and then an apologetic bow. "I'm so sorry for his atrocious behavior." She said. "I certainly didn't mean for this visit to cause trouble for you. Your baby is very precious, Tsuyumine. I hope you'll let me come visit once he's strong enough to go home."

Meg smiled gently and nodded. "You bet, Mamori." For the first time in her life, she had a girl friend she could call by first name. "I'll talk to you later."

"Right," Mamori agreed. Then she dashed out after Hiruma.

Rui, who had been trying to blow the tousled strands of hair off his face, stopped when he and Meg were alone again. "That was an odd encounter," he said.

"Very," she agreed, brushing the truant hair back for him with her fingers.

The peace and quiet only lasted a moment, however, before another visitor found their little corner. But at least this one actually was family.

Tokage seemed even more enthusiastic than usual, a proud new uncle. "Hey Little Bro! Little Meg! Very Little Nephew!"

"Wani," Meg happily chimed in. "He has a name now."

"Little Wani, eh?" Tokage said adoringly. "Not a bad name. Ah! But I didn't just come to see him. Rui, you won't believe what's happened in the last two days." He pulled out a newspaper that was tucked under his arm and handed it to Meg.

Curious, she looked at the article that had been circled in red marker. "Oh my god," she said. "Rui, your mother was arrested on charges of fraud, corruption, and money laundering."

"What?" Rui gasped.

"Yeah," she confirmed as she skimmed the story. "She could spend decades in prison, and she's definitely going to see a sharp decline in wealth and prestige."

"That woman is finally getting what she deserves. It's a deus ex machina!" Tokage proclaimed.

"No," Meg sighed. "It's a Hiruma ex machina."

"I don't even want to think about how much this is going to cost," Rui groaned.

* * *

The following spring…

* * *

In a coincidence befitting one of those shojo comics she so loathed, Meg's high school graduation ceremony coincided perfectly with the peak bloom of Tokyo's cherry blossoms. It made for an event that was as disgustingly pink as it was sentimental.

But when the diplomas had been passed out and the all pomp and circumstance was done with, Meg found herself unexpectedly more upbeat than cynical. She even smiled when Mamori surprised her with a hug from behind.

"Well, we did it," Meg told her.

"Yep," Mamori chirped. "Not only did you survive the rest of your senior year at Deimon, but you finished in the top ten for the entire school."

"Still below you," Meg reminded. "But it was definitely fun to shock everyone who wasn't expecting much from the notorious teen mother who got expelled from Zokugaku. And the way people stared at you when they saw you hanging out with me was priceless. But I guess you're used to weird looks, since you're dating Hiruma."

Mamori's face turned a shade that made the cherry blossoms look pale by comparison. "He's _not_ my boyfriend," she informed, with a bit less fight than she used to put up. "But I should probably go and find him to make sure he's not blowing something up in celebration. I'll see you later. Give Wani a big hug from me."

"Can do," she said. As her closest friend vanished into the crowd of young graduates, her mother appeared out of it. "Mom!" she called, running to greet her.

"Congratulations, honey," Mom said, beaming proudly.

"Thanks," Meg said. But her attention was already completely stolen by the chubby little boy in her mom's arms. "There's my sweet little Wanikichi," she cooed as she picked up her baby and hugged him to her chest.

Wani gurgled delightedly to be back with his mommy. He was just perfect, roly-poly and full of life, with no evidence at all of the six weeks he had to spend in the intensive care nursery. By now he had a full head of black fluff and his eyes were a beautiful olive green.

Just as Meg was admiring those green eyes, the guy he'd inherited them from stepped into her field of vision. He was trying not to stand out, staying under the shade of the trees, but the white Zokugaku jacket with its limp, empty sleeves was hard not to notice. A few Deimon graduates exchanged furtive whispers as they passed him.

Meg walked over, her smile growing wider and wider with each step that brought her closer to him. "Hey Rui," she said. "No more having to endure being at separate schools."

"I can't believe you chose Deimon," he said, rolling his eyes playfully. "Traitor."

She shifted Wani to her hip so that one of her arms was freed to hook around Rui's waist and pull him close. "I can't believe your mother managed to get me expelled before her arrest. But at least her sentence is going to last a lot longer than mine did."

"Yep," said Rui. "Wani will be a grown man by the time she gets out, which is good because I wouldn't want that woman to have any opportunity to poison him."

"As opposed to my mom who just spoils him rotten," Meg said wryly. "Who would have thought the thing that would finally thaw out her cold, cold heart would be the grandson she hadn't even wanted?"

Rui shrugged. "I can't say I blame her. He's pretty damn lovable, I think." He bent down low and kissed his son's downy head. Then he looked at Meg, his eyes containing all the affection he was too macho to say with words. "So did you still want to come with me? Wouldn't you rather start the celebration early?"

"Of course we're coming with you," she said. "If you ask me, getting fitted for top-of-the-line new arms is more cause for celebration than a stupid high school graduation."

"Well then we'd better get going," he told her.

"Right." She nodded and pulled a cloth harness from her school bag. Once Wani was safely secured to her back, Rui knelt down and she climbed on his, latching her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his hips.

"You ready?"

"Always," she answered in his ear. "You'll always be my ride, Habashira Rui."

"Damn I love you," he chuckled.

As she rode away on Rui's back, ignoring the gawks and hushed comments from the students around them, Meg was sure that she heard Hiruma's voice yelling, "You still owe me, Fucking Yankii!"

But she wasn't worried. It was just Hiruma after all.

The End


End file.
